Reserve Marines and sailors based here with Task Force African Lion assisted U.S. Army and Air National Guard health care professionals in conducting a humanitarian civic action project in rural towns around Morocco’s southwestern province of Taroudant May 18-22.
The HCA is an integral part of African Lion 2010, a joint and combined exercise led by Marine Forces Africa, with the preponderance of troops coming from Marine Forces Reserve units throughout the United States.
Over the course of five days, the U.S. service members from the task force worked with Moroccan Army and public health doctors to provide medical and dental care to more than a thousand Moroccan citizens who normally have little access to these services.
A task force veterinary team also provided free vaccinations to sheep and cattle for the farmers who made the long trek from their villages to the HCA sites.
“It was well organized,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Brian Pecha, the 4th Marine Division surgeon, who visited the HCA in the town of Tamaloukt May 22. “They were taking out teeth, diagnosing and treating intestinal disorders, examining eyes and giving out eyeglasses. They were doing decent things for these people. The Utah National Guard had a really nice system in place.”
An internal medicine hospitalist for the State of California in his civilian career, Pecha has spent 16 of his 22 years in the Navy as a reservist and flies to New Orleans about once every month for weekend drills.
Like most of the reservists here, this mission to Morocco is Pecha’s summer annual training requirement.
In a truly joint and combined effort, U.S. Army and Air National Guard doctors worked alongside their Navy counterparts, with Moroccan doctors also assisting in nearly every facet of the care.
“I think that for the most part the Moroccan doctors were really well-trained, too. One of the things about medicine is that it crosses borders. Doctors are doctors. They know their slice of medicine and are proud to show it off. I was really impressed by the kids and teenagers. They were very well-behaved and polite,” said Pecha.
“This is excellent. It allows for the transfer of knowledge between our countries and provides a good service to our population,” said Dr. Jamal Bouras, a Moroccan Ministry of Public Health official who served as the coordinator between the Moroccan military and Public Health department for the exercise. “It is good for our doctors to see the system that the Americans have in place. And it is a good cultural experience for the American doctors.”
A preventative medicine specialist, Bouras earned his medical degree from the Université du Medicin in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, and he went on to study occupational therapy at a university in Rennes, France for two years.
Bouras was particularly impressed by the smooth functioning of the pharmacy, which the doctors referred to as “the bee hive” because of all the intense activity in and around the facility. He lauded the plan of having an American pharmacist working in the same room with Moroccan pharmacists from the army and Ministry of Public Health. He also explained that both the purchase and dispensing of the medicine set an ideal model which benefits not only the people, but also the economy of Morocco.
Because the humanitarian civic action was part of African Lion, an annual joint and combined military exercise, the U.S. government bought most of the medicine through funding from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Most of the medicine dispensed during this project was produced by Moroccan and French pharmaceutical companies and purchased through Moroccan vendors.
“First, by purchasing the medicine here, you avoid problems with transport, damage and loss. Second, the medicine is less expensive here. Third, the people are more familiar with local medicine. And lastly, it is good for the Moroccan pharmaceutical companies and vendors.”
U.S. Navy Reserve Lt. Cdr. Brett Alan English, a pharmacist and research fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Pharmacology, had the opportunity to work in the clinic pharmacy May 19 to 22. He communicated with his Moroccan colleagues and patients in a combination of English, French and rudimentary Arabic.
“Life here in rural Morocco is very different than in America,” said English. “You can’t just drive over to the convenience store and pick up a bottle of Motrin or antacid tablets. You can’t go to GNC to buy vitamins and supplements. Coming here was a real eye-opener,” said English, who joined the Navy Reserve in 1998 and currently attends weekend drills in New Orleans as a medical planner with Headquarters Battalion, 4th Marine Division.
Cpl. Emilie Kelley, a reserve U.S. Marine and operations clerk in the task force headquarters command operations center, also visited Tamaloukt May 22. Kelley, who works as a health inspector for the state of Louisiana, utilized her civilian experience in the medical field to help out in the pharmacy, filling prescriptions and dispensing medication with English and their Moroccan counterparts.
“It’s really an eye-opener coming out here,” said Kelley, who has a degree in kinesiology and is headed for nursing school next year. “It makes you appreciate how good you have it.”
Kelley explained that the chance to get out and interact with the Moroccan medical professionals and patients at the clinic was a welcome respite to the long hours she’s worked in the command operations center, assisting in the planning and tracking of logistical movements of U.S. personnel and equipment throughout southwestern Morocco.
“I was impressed with how appreciative the (Moroccan) people were,” said Kelley. “They stood in line for hours waiting to be seen, to pick up their medication, and they still had smiles on their faces.”
“In addition to providing care to rural civilian populations in Morocco, the team also took care of sheep, goats, cows, mules and donkeys.
“We vaccinated donkeys and mules for tetanus and flu; the sheep, goats and cows for enterotoxemia (a gastrointestinal disease); we also gave the cows vitamin injections. All the animals got anti-parasite treatment. This is an agrarian based society; if you have healthier animals, you have a healthier food source, and healthier people,” said Utah National Guard Maj. Chris Larsen, nine-year veteran of the Guard who has done this type of exercise in Morocco four times in the past six years.
A veterinarian with a private practice in Gunnison, Utah in his civilian career, Larsen looks forward to returning next year to assist with the exercise again.
“The bees are also a major economic activity in the area,” added Larsen. “They produce many types of honey in the region, and the bees get a disease that prevents them from flying. If they can’t fly, they can’t produce honey. We gave the bee keepers Apistan strips which they put inside the hive. As the bees walk across them, they absorb the medicine, which treats the bees for the mites. Healthy bees make for a healthy economy.”
At the end of their long duty day May 22, the medical team received a visit from the governor of Taroudant Province and the mayor of the city of Taroudant, some 20 kilometers away.
The Moroccan public officials thanked the U.S. troops for their efforts in treating more than 1,100 patients, many of whom traveled long distances from rural villages to the HCA sites, frequently on foot.
As the Utah National Guard doctors and medical support personnel prepare to return to the States and back to their civilian lives and careers, several hundred more reserve troops are getting ready to fly over to Morocco for phase II of the exercise, which will run through mid-June.
“This is something that we’ve done every year for the past six years and hope to continue,” said Utah National Guard Col. Paul Byrd, the U.S. medical team commanding officer for the HCA and a contractor for the U.S. Joint Personnel Recovery Agency in his civilian career. “We’ve been able to streamline the process to make it better every time.”
This is the seventh year in a row that the Marine Corps has conducted African Lion, and a more robust reserve presence is planned for exercise next year.
“Overall, it’s a great training opportunity for us being engaged in a real-world mission providing care to a population that is culturally different, with language hurdles to overcome,” said Byrd. “But there is a similarity that our docs can identify with: we have people who need medical care that we can provide, and we’re glad to do it.”