Airmen provide optometry care to deploying African troops

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SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) --  Air Force optometry speicialists provided eye care to two battalions of African military members prior to the battalions leaving on a peace keeping mission in Somalia.

The team, which saw 1,597 Burundi, Africa, military troops Nov. 6 to 15 at Gakumbu military base, Africa, consisted of team chief, Maj. (Dr.) Craig McCluer and Tech. Sgt. Luis Gonzalez, both from the 52nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, and Capt. (Dr.) Michael Sapp and Senior Airman Dale King both from the 435th Aerospace Medicine Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

The team was sent to provide optometry and eye care because International Crisis Operations and Peace Keeping trainers reported that individual weapons qualifications and accuracy beyond 50 meters were hindered due to poor eyesight. The trainers placed a request for an eye-care team to evaluate and provide glasses for the two battalions.

The 52nd AMDS Optometry Flight was given four duty days to build their team and gather the necessary equipment to deploy into the austere environment. 

Additionally, the team went in expecting to face further challenges due to illiteracy.

"We found that only two percent of the troops couldn't read," said Maj. McCluer said. "The reason for this lower number is because most of these troops were 16 to 24 and, as their society evolved, more resources were available to them. It's highly probable that the older, more mature population didn't have access to proper studies as children. Nonetheless, we were prepared for this and had special charts available for those troops who could not read."

While the team was fortunate the literacy rate was higher than expected, they did faced a language challenge, as most of the troops only spoke French.

"I was surprised how much my college and high school French courses helped me out," Major McCluer said. "In Paris, I cannot understand those fast talkers, but in Burundi, they spoke nice and slow."

Their primary translator was the Burundi Division surgeon, Dr. Pamphile Nkurunziza, whose name means "good news."

"His real name was a mouth full, so we just called him Dr. Good News and he loved it," Sergeant Gonzalez said. "He was instrumental in us seeing so many patients."

To provide glasses to the patients, fabrication and delivery was arranged via an Army optical lab in Kuwait.

"At the end of each day, we coordinated with embassy staff to scan the prescriptions, then e-mail them to the lab," Sergeant Gonzalez said. "We got so efficient at the whole process that by the time we sent them the next day's worth of prescriptions, the lab had already made the previous day's worth."

This trip was Major McCluer and Sergeant Gonzalez's second time in Africa. Both were their respective functional leaders during a MEDFLAG mission to Ghana last year.

"Both missions were highly demanding, yet highly rewarding," Major McCluer said. "It feels good to do our part for the U.S. Africa Command and to do anything we can for the war on terrorism."

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