Nassau Medical Team Trains with Allies

Military medical professionals from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia visited USS Nassau (LHA 4) April 11 for a series of professional exchanges and demonstrations as part of the ongoing Exercise Phoenix Express. Phoenix Express is one of a series of North African exercises held annually in the Naval Forces Europe-Sixth Fleet (CNE-C6F) area of operations and directly supports its strategic priority of improving maritime security.

“Until this exercise, I didn’t know about some of the capabilities of the Algerian Navy,” said Nassau Senior Medical Officer Capt. David Lasseter. “We’ve learned quite a bit in the first couple of hours of this exercise about the ability of the other countries involved in Phoenix Express.” Nassau medical staff and Fleet Surgical Team (FST) 2 exchanged medical knowledge, capabilities, and procedures with the teams from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. During the training evolution the teams reviewed MEDEVAC procedures, airway management and evaluation of trauma victims. “We had people go above and beyond with this training,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (SW) Edward Daniel, FST-2 leading petty officer. “Their level of knowledge was above expectations.” The joint training aboard Nassau also included lab training, demonstrating blood transfusions, general lab chemistry and the proper use of medical equipment.

“It was easy to work side by side with the diverse countries,” said Daniel. “I learned that we’re not that different, we do the same things just in a different way. Even though we couldn’t speak the same language, we could understand them because medicine is universal.” Phoenix Express, a two-week long exercise designed to strengthen regional maritime partnerships, is focused on the development of increased maritime domain awareness, better information sharing practices and the ability to operate jointly. The exercise includes participants from Algeria, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States.

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Amanda Clayton, USS Nassau Public Affairs