Air Force Medical Team Deploys to Chile

Air Force Medical Team Deploys to Chile

American Forces Press Service
SANTIAGO, Chile, March 9, 2010 – An Air Force expeditionary medical support team from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, will arrive here today to help people impacted by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck the nation Feb. 27.

The team, consisting of more than 80 airmen, including 63 medical personnel, will conduct humanitarian assistance operations in the city of Angol, southeast of Concepcion, an area that suffered considerable damage as a result of the historic seismic event.

The deployment is being funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance as part of a multiagency relief effort by the U.S. government in Chile. The medical team will join other relief activities already under way.

The medical team is equipped and staffed to provide surgical, primary care, pediatric, radiological, gynecological, laboratory, pharmaceutical and dental services. The airmen will work alongside Chilean civilian medical personnel during their deployment.

On March 7, U.S. Southern Command deployed a 10-person
command-and-control team here to assist the U.S. military group overseeing U.S. military assistance to Chile in the earthquake’s aftermath.

On March 6, two Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft and a team of about 50 airmen from the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing arrived here to support and augment a Chilean air force-led airlift relief operation delivering aid to affected communities near the earthquake’s epicenter.

(From a U.S. Southern Command news release.)