EUCOM Fire Safety Day - Interview

Credit: Senior Airman Camerron Niewoehner | Date Taken: 06/22/2023
Medical Readiness Command Europe collaborated with Defense Health Agency Region Europe, NATO, the Sembach Fire Department, SHARP, 30th Medical Brigade, Dental Health Command Europe, Public Health Command Europe, 598th Transportation BDE, and 10th AAMDC to host their bi-annual Safety Standdown Day event on June 22nd. The EUCOM training event was held in preparation for the next one-hundred and one critical days of Summer. U.S. ARMY COLONEL JACOB H. GIN, Troop Commander, Medical Readiness Command Europe explains the importance of this event. Interview - "This event's important because as we head into the hot summer months where soldiers, sailors and airmen have more time off time off with family, it's very important to have some basic safety features not just to keep themselves safe, but also to keep their family safe. And, you know, a lot of times we tend to drop our guard a little bit during the summertime and relax a little bit which is good, we need to connect with our loved ones and family. But at the same time, we got to always be vigilant with respect to safety measures. So we really have to make sure that our sons and daughters that are entrusted by the United States military are just taken care of and if we are injuring ourselves or harming ourselves through negligence or on education, it really hurts our readiness and we need every soldier on deck to prepare ourselves for whatever our missions are called for us to do. Our motto is people first always we want to ensure that we are not just taking care of our soldiers, sailors and airmen, but also our family members to family members are an integral part of just being ready. So I got to participate in a handful we had many stations and again this event has gotten larger last year. We just did it for medical readiness command Europe. But our safety officer Mr. Chuck Lewis decided, hey, let's make this a whole Sembach Kasern, and we even got the CMC to come out. And it looks like we increased the number of safety stations. The participants came throughout Sembach from 30th, med brigade and COM to MRC, Europe to other units. They all came prepared ready to really get after understanding the core principles of basic safety, particularly summer safety. And I think they were very enthusiastic, and embraced all the stations that we have to offer. This is the perfect time of the year as folks take leave as school is all families begin to travel, take vacation. And again, like you drop your guard a little bit. And this is just a subtle reminder to our soldiers or sailors and our airmen that safety is not only in the workplace, but it's also in the home place, right? It's when you go out on vacation, it's when you go camping, and you're trying to start up a campfire or grill. These are all things that we just want to put subtle reminders of things that they probably already know. But we want to ensure that they come back safe, so that when they're well rested from their vacations and their time off that they're ready and resilient back at the workplace. So previously, we were Regional Health Command Europe and we provided command and control and oversight over all things health care delivery over not just our army health clinics and our MTFs but also in the dental space as well as our Public Health Command space since the transition occurred, and we are now pivoting to readiness. Our goal as a medical readiness command is to focus more on just Soldier readiness in the medical space, ensuring we are ready medical force as well as medical ready force. The transition is fairly new. And we are working with our partners defense health agency to ensure we have seamless support so that the health care delivery piece doesn't get dropped, but we increase our focus on medical readiness. So the defense health agency region Europe stood up last fall they are still in somewhat of a transition phase. They are focused on providing oversight and control of all things health care delivery for our medical treatment facilities in our army health clinics and not just in the army space but also the defense health agency Europe market office also oversees Air Force and Navy. So it is truly a joint sort of synergized effort that the defense health agency is starting to roll out. In years past Army medicine we focused in in our area, Air Force did their thing. Navy did their thing, as their Surgeon General and their commanding generals have led but the defense health agency has now integrated as part of law and NDAA to have that oversight as one body to oversee all three services. It was wonderful to see our partners here, not just in Sembach but also throughout the KMC. I think it really shows a synergy within the armed forces to see fellow units come together for a common goal which is our safety program, which is extremely important to all three services. And I believe truly that there was some joint interoperability that occurred today with the different units kind of understanding and going through the same training. And I think that there's definitely a goodness to that. It's all about taking care of our people they are our most prized possession in terms of our American sons and daughters are entrusted to be taken care of by the United States military. And I think bringing safety to every single training event is extremely important. Because at the same time, we have to train realistically, we have to train hard in order to stay ahead of our adversaries. So, I currently wear four hats. I'm primarily the Assistant Chief of Staff medical readiness command G one, but I'm dual headed as the troop commander for our headquarters. Recently, the MHS Military Health System had a massive transition as we transition Army Medicine from a Regional Health Command to a medical readiness command. And we also had our MTFs in our Army Health Clinics transition to the defense health agency. So, I was the point lead as the Military Health System, transition lead overall for Europe. So those are three hats and then my fourth hat that I'm moving into is the new Medical Center, the new hospital that will be replacing Landstuhl and the 86 Medical Clinic. I'm going to help as the army liaison to spearhead getting that hospital up and running."