Afghan PRT treats patients, prepares village for winter

  • Published
  • By Capt. Joe Campbell
  • Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team
PANJSHIR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  Twenty-four members of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team, the 405th Civil Affairs Battalion and Task Force Tiger made the four-hour trek to the northernmost district here to assist the province's most impoverished population.

A cooperative Medical Civic Action Program, or MEDCAP, was coordinated at the invitation of Panjshir Director of Health Dr. Ghellani Saadat, and held at the Paryan District's Basic Health Clinic Oct. 28. 

Afghan National Police assisted the team's security element ensuring a smooth and incident-free mission.

"This was our fourth medical mission to Paryan since June," said Air Force Reserve Maj. Kurt Workmaster, Panjshir PRT physician assistant. "This latest MEDCAP was needed before the onset of winter."

The Paryan Basic Health Clinic does not have a physician on staff to meet the needs of the district's 38,000 residents. In all, 421 patients were seen by Major Workmaster and three Air Force medical technicians.

"We set up two provider stations and a pharmacy station and that kept the patients' wait to no longer than about an hour," said Tech. Sgt. Charles Campbell, NCO in charge of medics.

Senior Airman Melanie Weaver, Bagram PRT medic, volunteered for the mission to help meet the needs of female patients.

"We had one station for male patients and his children and a second station for female patients and the children they brought in," she said.

The three-station model worked well along with bringing in five patients at a time from the waiting line, which is a lesson learned on a previous visit, said Senior Airman Conan Broyles who ran the pharmacy station along with a staff member from the health clinic. 

While the MEDCAP was in full swing, the non-medical team coordinated the delivery of rice, beans, cooking oil, salt, tea and powdered milk, distributed school supplies, assessed the district's government center facility now under construction, and surveyed a landing zone for helicopters.

At nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, Paryan has the highest elevation of the six districts in the Panjshir Valley. Since the rough and narrow road to the district cannot support truck transport, helicopter airlift of the humanitarian assistance supplies was necessary.

"We sent up two loads of humanitarian assistance supplies totaling 8,000 pounds to help the residents of Paryan get through the winter," said Army 1st Lt. Sarah Rosnick, Panjshir PRT operations officer.

Army Staff Sergeant Gary Beiswanger, Panjshir PRT Civil Affairs Team NCO in charge, and Army Sgt. 1st Class Tony Perez set up the drop zone and called in the CH-47 Chinook via radio and hand signals on each load. 

"There is no way to safely get that amount of supplies up here over the road, so our team at Bagram assembled four pallets of food near the aircraft parking ramp at Bagram Air Field and coordinated a sling load mission with Task Force Centaur for the Chinook support," said Sergeant Perez, Panjshir PRT first sergeant.

The team plans to do at least one more humanitarian assistance drop before winter, and now they can use the tried and proven landing zone should the district become cut off in harsh winter conditions. 

"I'm very proud of our PRT," said Lt. Col. Neal Kringel, Panjshir PRT commander. "In one day we simultaneously conducted three very challenging operations that not only showed our resolve to help the people of Paryan, but also collectively highlighted the dedication, professionalism and skill of our individual members."