Surgeon General and guest visits EMF-K

Expeditionary Medical Facility Kuwait (EMF-K) hosted the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Ms. Ellen Embrey, the Surgeon General of the Navy, Vice Admiral Adam M. Robinson, the Surgeon to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Rear Admiral (Upper Half) David Smith, and the Force Master Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, HMCM Laura Martinez. This trip was the end point to their swing through Afghanistan to preside at the Transfer of Authority (TOA) of the NATO Level III hospital in Kandahar from the Canadians to the American Navy. RADM Smith noted it was a great ceremony and watching the flag of the United States of America rise above the hospital was a truly inspiring moment.
Our guests were given a tour of EMFK and a brief on our mission and work to support the entire CENTCOM AOR. They were not only impressed with what we do here, but that we are able to send warriors forward to Afghanistan and other areas to support other missions. They noted that the demand for Navy medicine is increasing in Afghanistan, and that we will need to work on transitioning out of our current mission in Kuwait.
The VIP’s attended EMFK’s 234th Navy Birthday Ball, which was held as a pirate themed event. The master of ceremonies, His Lordship King Neptune (FTCS Almanza) coordinated the efforts of all the EMFK’s sailor associations into a highly successful and entertaining evening.
Surgeon Generals Call, and Force Master Chief Call were held, with many questions on the role of the Navy in Afghanistan, Joint Operations, Purple suited medical corps, Training and credentialing across the services, operations in other theaters, and many more. It was good to see that our leaders know our concerns and are actively working the issues.
Force Master Chief (FMF) Laura Martinez, had a chance to take time to talk to Sailors assigned to EMF-K.
“I always take an opportunity to take time to visit with the Sailors. It is always good to come back through here.” She also stated, “everyone here is doing an outstanding job!”
Ms. Embrey was the featured speaker at a dinner attended by members of the Army and Air Force medical departments along with EMFK’s wardroom and Chief’s mess. She spoke about initiatives in the DoD to truly fix the electronic medical record, to improve information flow far forward, Tricare initiatives for the deployed population and how the military medical system is truly working well as a joint system, but will never be a “purple” system due to the differences in culture and operational needs between the services.
This visit was a great opportunity for EMFK to show off (by doing what they do every day), for the top leaders in military medicine, and for our warriors to learn what issues our top leaders are working on, and, what keeps them up at night. It was a highly productive visit for all concerned.

Happy Birthday US Navy! Today marks the 234th birthday of the finest Navy the world has ever known. If you haven’t ever looked into the history and heritage of your service, I strongly encourage you to do so. Yesterday’s Navy broke all the rules, won wars against overwhelming odds, and basically kicked butt and took names. Today’s Navy continues that proud tradition of fighting for causes as simple but important as protecting our way of life, of principle centered leadership (leadership by every individual that makes up the whole of the US Navy), and of innovation, dedication, and perseveration. These are all characteristics that make up the character of each and every warrior of EMFK. This command, and this US Navy, cannot win by relying only on its weapons, its policies, it's tactics. We can only win by the true inspired efforts of each of our warriors, pulling together for the common cause, and advancing the commands mission. Our warriors win the wars, and make the US Navy look good. And it's looking real good for 234 years of age.

Speaking of age, happy birthday to our October warriors: SK2 Adegoke October 3, HM2 Lucas October 3, LCDR Grothe October 5, CAPT McNeil October 5, HM2 Frutos October 10, HM2 Uzcategui October 10, HM2 Olivar October 13, HM1 Bonilla Ocotber 15, LTJG Boese October 17, LT Bailey October 18, HM2 Francisco October 25, HM3 Reid October 25, LCDR Laboy October 28, LT Robinson October 28, HM1 Bedard October 31.

I also want to congratulate our Sailors of the quarter, Blue Jacket of the Quarter, HN Bigley, Junior Sailor of the Quarter, HM2 Alonzolopez, and Senior Sailor of the Quarter, HM1 Jasper. The competition was fierce for this recognition, and the Chiefs mess was oozing blood as each LCPO fought for their warriors. Each candidate was exceptionally qualified, which makes it all the more significant for those that were selected. Please take the time to congratulate these outstanding warriors.

Things are looking good out here in the desert. We continue to provide the finest medical care available, and continue to work on improving everything we do. Again, many thanks to all of you for the support you give to the warriors of EMFK as they do their part in the War on Terror.

Till next time.

CAPT Welling
CO, EMFK

EMF-K Senior Sailor of the Quarter

HM1 Jasper was selected as EMF-K Senior Sailor of the Quarter. He is the Leading Petty Officer to the largest outlying branch clinic of EMF-K. He directly supervises and leads 22 enlisted personnel that oversaw 11,000 patients this quarter. He provided a vision and plan for ensuring a smooth move from the old TMC spaces to the new $1.3M facility. HM1 has so many accomplishments within 90 days that the list is lengthy. HM1 Jasper is an exceptional leader put in the right place for the right time! HM1 is what the Navy is all about!

EMF-K Junior Sailor of the Quarter

HM2 Alonsolopez is the Junior Sailor of the Quarter. He has six years and seven months in the Navy. He is the main operating room Leading Petty Officer. He is directly contributed to the delivery of high quality care to 257 scheduled minor, elective and emergent surgical procedures on military and civilian personnel region wide. He was recently awarded the United Services Organization's (USO) 2009 Volunteer of the Year for the Pacific region. He launched Operation Enduring Care at EMF. This is an outreach program coordinated with the USO designed for Wounded Warriors and the staff entrusted with their care. HM2 is a strong role model for all Sailors, leads by example, and instills Core Values!

EMF-K Blue Jacket of the Quarter

HN Bigley was selected for Blue Jacket of the Quarter. His time in servies is 2 years and 4 months. He manages the flow of patients at EMF Camp Arifjan for 12 providers. He ensured that 2,378 patients were provided excellent patient care over a 90 day period. He is an active member in the command and community. HN Bigley is a Sailor who is leading by example!

Words from the Captain

LSA Crew

Warriors, families and friends of EMFK, it's October 2, 2009, and life is good in Kuwait. While most people think of Kuwait as dry and hot, it actually has seasons, dry and hot most of the time, dry and really hot, dry and not so hot, and wet and cold (60-80degrees). We are, like most of you, experiencing fall now. The air is crisp, and while not cool (except in our berthing where we’re freezing our behinds off), it's cooler, the sun rises later and sets earlier, and just looks like fall. We don’t have any trees to speak of, so no bright fall orange, red and yellow leaves, and the sand, well, the sand is the sand.

We recently had the unexpected departure of a large part of the command in returning back home. As we were working with the chain of command to input our requirements for the next detachment (Juliet), many of our current Nobel Eagle numbers (the numbers our orders are generated from), were terminated along with unused Nobel Eagle numbers from our proposed Juliet det. Thus, many of our warriors that had been here from July on were unexpectedly ordered back to their parent command, or to ECRC. While this caused a lot of commotion, and initial shock, all of the EMFK warriors rapidly adjusted fire, and either packed up and headed home to participate in the War on Terror from CONUS, or reset their actions here, and again, hit the deck running in providing excellent medical care to our patients, keeping themselves and the command 100% ready for everything, and continuing to improve how we do business in creating a culture of operational and organizational excellence.
To those headed home, they go with their heads held high, knowing they contributed to the War on Terror, and did their nations business well. While we miss them, and wish them fair winds and following seas, we know they will continue to kick butt and take names wherever they land.
For those that remain at EMFK, they continue to prosecute our mission full out. And with a couple of small course corrections, we are fully operational, fully capable, and fully engaged in the business of taking care of fellow warriors. I am extremely proud of all the warriors of India detachment.

We are halfway though India’s time in the sand, and have accomplished many great things. Several of our warriors have deployed forward to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places. They did or are doing great work. Our clinics continue to provide outstanding care to the permanent party warriors here in Kuwait, and those that transit through to other locations. We continue to adjust our staffing to meet the mission, and are getting leaner and meaner as we go. We have looked at all our processes and reworked or canceled those that weren’t doing what we needed, and we’ve trained both medically and in the combat related skills we need to survive in a combat zone. We learned from the 1st round of H1N1, and are ready for any waves that follow. In short, we are ready. Period.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support our EMFK and it's amazing warriors. We couldn’t do what we do without you having our backs.

Till next time.

CAPT Welling
CO, EMFK