TEAM WORKS TO WIPE OUT PESTS, DISEASE IN TROOP AREAS IN IRAQ
V Corps Release
Release Date: 5/22/2003
By Spc. Jennifer Nelson V Corps Public Affairs Office
CAMP VICTORY, IRAQ -- Mosquitoes, flies, and rats here are getting the (combat) boot from the 714th Medical Detachment.
Shortly after arriving at Camp Victory, the 10-member team from Fort Bragg, N.C., which provides preventive medicine for V Corps, Combined Forces Land Component Command and Baghdad International Airport, went right to work. Investigating a rat-infested living area, they found rat droppings in dozens of locations, inside and out. They laid traps throughout the area and taught the soldiers there how to properly clear and reset them. In less than a week, nine rats were killed. During a typical week, a team from the 714th inspects living and work areas here for rodents and sets mosquito light traps around sites with large concentrations of standing water. Later, team members collect the light traps and refrigerate them to ensure all mosquitoes are dead.
But it's not all as easy as just setting and collecting traps. This is a science.
The group's preventive medicine technicians study subjects ranging from entomology to industrial hygiene and are Department of Defense certified to use pesticides and teach field sanitation classes.
Team members act as "field scientists" who gather information and samples, analyze their findings, and compile the data in report form to send to the Army's Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, which provides worldwide scientific expertise and services in clinical and field preventive medicine, environmental and occupational health, health promotion and wellness, epidemiology and disease surveillance, toxicology, and related laboratory sciences.
When an analysis returns from CHPPM, team members here can decide which pesticides will be most effective. The teams from Camp Victory are sending the first reports ever from Iraq to CHPPM.
"We're not just bug killers," said Team One preventive medicine technician Spc. Nathaniel J. Taylor. "We have to be able to recognize five different genus' of mosquitoes."
Taylor said they are focusing on two of the genuses here - aedes and culex - that cause diseases such as malaria and sand fly fever. The team also drops larvacide briquettes in areas with stagnant water to prevent larvae from maturing into adult mosquitoes.
Preventing non-battle injuries caused by disease goes beyond spraying for mosquitoes and trapping rats, though. The team's technicians inspect everything from water buffaloes to enemy prisoners of war camps to mobile kitchen trailers.
"Some soldiers think we have the authority to shut down dining facilities, but we don't. We recommend what to do to correct deficiencies, so that the facility meets the standards," said Team One leader Sgt. Brian E. Rixon.
If the team finds any critical deficiencies during a routine inspection, there is about a two-day wait before re-inspection; otherwise, routine inspections are weekly. After each inspection, team members out-brief facility supervisors and advise them of how to correct shortcomings.
Team member Spc. Nona C. Burns is on her first deployment here, and she said she's finding there are some challenges that go along with her job.
"You can't be afraid to communicate deficiencies to higher-ranking soldiers," she said.
"We have a lot of independent tasks, and our superiors don't have the time to baby-sit us to make sure we're doing our jobs," Taylor added. "Also, one day we might be setting rat traps, and the next day we're testing the chlorine levels in water buffaloes. You have to be able to roll with that."
And because the 714th is a small unit, its members often have dual roles that require them to perform supply and hazardous material duties. Burns, for example, is also the unit's armorer. But despite the heavy workload (one preventive tech should be able to support 250 soldiers), she seems to enjoy even the "dirtiest" aspects of her job.
"I've always liked the outdoors and I was never afraid of bugs.only frogs," Burns said.
Team members also educate soldiers here about the importance of personal hygiene in a deployed setting. Taylor said soldiers underestimate the value of simple hand washing.
"A lot of our job involves enforcing common-sense in field sanitation. Soldiers could prevent about 90 percent of their illnesses themselves," he said.
From the look of it, the 714th won't be running out of work here any time soon.
"We get to do our job, and we have a lot of it to do," Rixon said.
Before the unit leaves here, Taylor said he has one goal: "I want the unit that comes in after us to come to a stabilized area, knowing that we set the standard. And I'd like to kill about 50,000 Iraqi mosquitoes."
(Spc. Jennifer Nelson is a member of the 319th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment attached to the V Corps Media Operations Center in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.)
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