Army Reservists provide medical support in El Salvador

EL COCO, El Salvador (April 20, 2015) -- More than 30 soldiers from the U.S. Army Reserve provided critical medical services to locals at multiple locations in El Salvador, April 13-17. Working in conjunction with personnel from El Salvador, Canada and Brazil, the medical professionals provided thousands of Salvadorans with much-needed vaccinations, dental work, optometry and more.

"We're doing the MEDRETE [medical readiness training exercise] in El Coco province, which is getting all the local people from the area - which is around 600 to 1,000 people a day - we get them through general medical, dentistry and optometry," said U.S. Army Spc. Brock Mitchell Tucker, of Greenville, Texas, a medic with the 144th Minimal Care Detachment in San Diego. "We make sure they can have glasses and, if they have tooth aches, we get their teeth pulled and we also provide general medical treatment."

"We go into a location and set up, usually at a school - somewhere large enough to hold patients and organize patient flow," said U.S. Army Capt. Christopher White, officer in charge of the El Coco MEDRETE.


http://www.army.mil/article/146765/Army_Reservists_provide_medical_support_in_El_Salvador/