HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The U.S. Army Reserve set up base camp at the University of Guam Calvo Field House in Mangilao to bring free services to the community as part of the 2023 Guam Innovative Readiness Training medical mission.
Two days into the event, hundreds of island residents received much-needed health care services.
Col. Andrea Bowers, the officer in charge, helped plan and pull military units from around the world to participate and support the Guam community to provide residents with free basic medical, dental and optometry services.
“There was an attempt to have a Guam Innovative Readiness Training just before COVID-19, but COVID happened and it was canceled,” Bowers said. “Now we received an application to come back out and try again, and it’s fortunate the timing is pretty good.”
Just in time for the start of the new school year, medical professionals from around the world, many of them reservists in the military, put on their uniforms and made the trip to Guam.
“These are already medically certified, credentialed professionals, so really it’s your local doctor, surgeon, nurse, optometrist, dentist from your neighborhood putting on a uniform and giving back to the community,” Bowers said.
It’s a humanitarian mission that helps prepare military branches to come together at a moment’s notice.
“What we are actually training for is how to plan for, move and synchronize as one unit, even though we are coming from everywhere else,” Bowers said. “So that is our training part. Everyone here are medical professionals, they have their own practices at home, they work at a hospital. That’s one thing unique about medical services – we do this full-time. Half of us are reservists.”
Back to school
Bowers said after two days, the mission has provided medical services to roughly 500 residents.
Among those who made use of the services was Ritleen Moses, who was in line with a child who needed to be medically cleared for kindergarten.
“I don’t have insurance yet,” Moses said. “Our insurance is no more. I don’t know what happened. I did my renewal for my food stamp and Medicaid, and I didn’t receive it yet.”
Moses said her son, who turned 6 on Thursday, and her 6-month-old needed immunizations she couldn’t afford.
“That’s why I just bring him here today,” she said. “It’s free. … I saw it on Facebook.”
Zhenyu Tan, originally from China, brought his family to the medical mission after hearing about the event from a friend.
“PPD (tuberculosis skin test) for my son, and then my wife is cleaning her teeth,” said Tan, a Tamuning resident. “My son for the school – prekindergarten, K4 – only needs the PPD.”
Rowena D.L. Baltazar, a certified nursing assistant with the Department of Public Health and Social Services, instructs incoming patients to wear masks Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023
