Multilateral team helps more than 1,500 Thai residents

  • Published
  • By Capt. Genieve David
  • 13th Air Force Public Affairs
UDON THANI ROYAL THAI AIR FORCE BASE, Thailand (AFNS) --  Military medical staff members from the United States, Singapore and Thailand assisted more than 1,500 patients during a medical civic assistance project held here March 1 through 12 as part of Cope Tiger 2010.

Cope Tiger, held this year primarily at Korat and Udon Thani Royal Thai Air Force Bases in Thailand f is an annual multilateral exercise aimed at improving interoperability and strengthening relationships with partner nations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The medical civic assistance program that took place at Ban Nong Sroung School and several other locations here and complements the exercise, allowing participants to help local residents.

Medical military members, along with local civilian medical staff members, worked in concert to assist and treat members of the local community with free general medicine, optometry and dental care.

More than 500 patients were seen in the general medicine clinic. The patients had common health issues including joint pain, gastrointestinal issues, upper respiratory infections and skin rashes.

"Our medical civic assistance program was a great success," said Maj. Gregory Richert, the lead medical planner from 13th Air Force at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. "We had a lot of interaction with our Thai military counterparts and local community hospitals and actually saw more dental and optometry patients than last year."

Cope Tiger medical staff members performed more than 170 tooth extractions for 173 patients, provided nearly 1,000 pairs of prescription glasses and more than 1,090 pairs sunglasses for 868 patients.

"We positively impacted four communities, which was very rewarding for the entire team," Major Richert said.