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Fleet Hospital Jacksonville Personnel Deploy to Djibouti

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS040304-11

Release Date: 3/4/2004 6:17:00 PM

By Loren Barnes, Naval Hospital Jacksonville Public Affairs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (NNS) -- More than 30 doctors, nurses and hospital corpsmen from Fleet Hospital Jacksonville deployed to the African nation of Djibouti Feb. 19.

They will join an Expeditionary Medical Unit (EMU) currently supporting the Combined Joint Task Force, Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA).

They will relieve 41 Fleet Hospital Jacksonville medical personnel who deployed with the EMU to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, in September 2003, who are slated to return to Jacksonville in March.

"After being in the Navy 18 years, this will be a new experience for me," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Alan Scott.

Saying farewell to his wife and three children, Scott added, "I realized that the separation will be hard on them, but the experience should prove challenging and rewarding."

"I really don't know exactly what to expect," said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Christine Hobbs. "From what I've heard, it should be pretty exciting."

The CJTF-HOA, including medical personnel from Fleet Hospital Jacksonville, has been involved in humanitarian aid through the Medical Civil Action Program, reaching out with much-needed medical care to the civilian population of Djibouti City.

Delivering a prayer as the medical personnel prepared to ship out, Hospital Chaplain Lt. Jason R. Hefner said, "You will be bringing a lot of caring to people who need it--and who better to deliver it?"

Fleet Hospital Jacksonville is the largest of the hospital's deployable platforms. As part of the hospital's dual mission, most of the military staff are assigned to platforms that stand ready to deploy anywhere in the world.

This unit is the Navy's first EMU. This deployment will expand medical care to personnel supporting coalition forces in the region by providing expanded sick call hours, casualty receiving, an intensive care/medical-surgical unit, operating room, laboratory and radiology unit. The EMU also provides specialty consultation services in orthopedics, general surgery, sports medicine, hand surgery and internal medicine. This significantly expands medical care to those who might not otherwise have access to these specialists, prevents needless medical evacuations out of theater, and directly translates to quicker recovery for injured or ill personnel.