Subject Matter Expert Exchange Builds Relationships

LIMN, Costa Rica (NNS) -- The John Hopkins (JH) Go Team, along with Sailors from Naval Aviation Survival Skill Center Jacksonville, Navy Environment Preventive Medicine Unit two in Norfolk, Va., with coordination from U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, participated in a Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) with Costa Rican officials April 20-22 in Costa Rica.

The purpose of the SMEE was to bring together multiple responding agencies in the region to discuss hospital response to disasters, particularly in the setting of earthquakes.

Panels of providers from the hospital in Puntarenas were invited to describe their response to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck September 5, 2012, to set the scenario for discussion. Topics for the day included the Limn earthquake of 1991.

Lt. Jefferson Moody, an environmental health officer with Preventive Medicine Unit Two, took part in the SMEE, bringing his expertise in sanitation to the forum.

"As we began to discuss setting up camps and relief sites to treat victims of a natural disaster, I wanted to focus on the sanitation of these camps with our Costa Rican counterparts," said Moody. "A clean area is not only essential for the individuals being treated, but the caregivers as well, they cannot continue to do their job if they become ill."

Moody has deployed twice in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and once in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Also taking part was Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Justin Cardente, an aerospace physiologist tech from Naval Aviation Survival Skill Center Jacksonville.

"I was involved in the camp set ups, I was able to bring my experiences from my deployments to Iraq," said Cardente. "We were able to show the Costa Ricans how we did it, and learned how they did it."

Cardente went on to talk about the experience of being able to work with our partner nations.

"This was a great and rewarding trip for both the Americans and Costa Ricans," said Cardente. "I personally learned a lot and I am glad I had the opportunity to go.

Johns Hopkins has had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of the Navy since 2010 to provide medical support to the Navy's disaster relief and humanitarian mission through its deployable medical asset, the Johns Hopkins (JH) Go Team.

The JH Go Team is a multidisciplinary deployable disaster asset. The team partnered with the Navy in in its response to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, and Continuing Promise (CP) in 2010, and 2011 and had been planning to be a part of CP13.

CP is a five-month annual mission to Central and South America and the Caribbean, where the Navy and its partnering nations work hand-in-hand with host nations and a variety of governmental and non-governmental agencies (NGOs), to train in civil-military operations.

Unfortunately CP 13 was cancelled due to sequestration mandate funding cuts. But joint ventures like this event in Costa Rica, allow the Navy to find solutions to fill capability gaps caused by the budget cuts, while maintaining enduring partnerships with our partner nations.

U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet (COMUSNAVSO/C4F) supports USSOUTHCOM joint and combined full-spectrum military operations by providing principally sea-based, forward presence to ensure freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain, to foster and sustain cooperative relationships with international partners and to fully exploit the sea as maneuver space in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions.

For more news from U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command & U.S. 4th Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/cusns/.