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Oklahoma Air National Guard to carry out medical humanitarian mission in Azerbaijan

17 May 2007 16:54 (UTC +04:00)

The Oklahoma Air National Guard is conducting Operation Cherokee Angel from May 14 to May 21, US Embassy told the APA the two-fold objective of this medical humanitarian mission is to improve the health and welfare of the local Azerbaijani population while training and working along side the Azerbaijan medical personnel. The Operation included 57 Oklahoma Air National Guard servicemen, mostly medical professionals, who were transported to Azerbaijan on two C-130 Hercules. Brigadier General Robert D. Ireton, the chief of staff of the Oklahoma Air National Guard, heads the mission and will have meetings with the Ministers of Defense and Health during his visit to Azerbaijan.
The first phase of the Operation includes joint training and a professional exchange between the Oklahoma medical team and their Azerbaijani military counterparts at an Azerbaijani training center. The training includes classroom instruction on hospital site selection, field sanitation, shelter assembly, pre- hospital trauma, patient assessment, and airway management. The team will conduct field practice together with Azerbaijani counterparts by offering treatment to Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons between May 19 and 21 at xxx. â€œThis experience in humanitarian missions and global medicine is critical for future operations. We look forward to sharing our medical knowledge with the Azeri forces,â€ said Lt. Col James Davis, a flight surgeon with the 137th Airlift squadron.
The Oklahoma-Azerbaijan partnership was established in 2002 under the U.S. European Command State Partnership Program, which aligns selected states with nations around the world in an effort to promote stability.
Created in 1993, the State Partnership Program currently includes 54 partnerships worldwide. Twenty-six of those are in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility, including five in Africa and 21 in Europe. /APA/