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Airman 1st Class Alex N. Kolesar, a medical admin technician, and Tech. Sgt. Erik S. Papp, a biomedical engineer, volunteer at the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center Europe in Pirmasens.
PIRMASENS, Germany — When medical equipment for U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center Europe’s humanitarian assistance program needs to be cleaned, inspected and prepared for shipment, Airmen from the 86th Medical Group volunteered for the job.
The group came to USAMMCE headquarters, located at a U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz installation in Pirmasens, on Saturdays to get the work done.
They began volunteering in March 2012. Since then, they prepared 483 pieces of medical equipment valued at $4.2 million in support of the humanitarian missions to Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Some equipment also supported U.S. Africa Command projects.
Recently, a group of 20 volunteers took part, including biomedical engineers, medical logisticians and personnel from other medical specialties, said Luis DeAndrade, who leads USAMMCE’s humanitarian assistance program. Five were on temporary assignment at Ramstein.
They inspected and prepared 121 pieces of medical equipment and prepared 15 gurneys, $775,000 of aid for this year’s Operation Provide Hope mission to Tbilisi, Georgia. The shipment will also support “A Call to Serve,” or ACTS, a nongovernmental organization in Georgia.
“We are preparing as much materiel as possible for shipment to the countries the program supports,” said DeAndrade, adding that the U.S. State Department will phase out HAP in September 2014.
Facing both funding and time constraints, some materiel will be turned into the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office for disposition. Thanks to the Air Force volunteers over the past two years, millions of dollars worth of medical equipment made it into the hands of those who need it, DeAndrade said.
“Many thanks to these young airmen and NCOs who epitomize our military service values,” DeAndrade said.
