The Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC) hosted a six-day simulated exercise to evaluate deployment readiness for operational public health professionals Nov. 15-21, at Fort Story, Virginia.

Preventive medicine team members from Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 2, Norfolk, who make up NEPMU-2's Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit (FDPMU) platform, took part in the Operational Readiness Evaluation (ORE).

The ORE focused on the identification of strengths and limitations associated with an FDPMU's ability to meet its core mission to provide rapidly deployable, flexible and sustainable force health protection (FHP) services to forward deployed elements of the Navy and Marine Corps team using state of the art analytical equipment.

According to Capt. Dexter Hardy, NMCPHC's director for Preventive Medicine, the primary mission of the FDPMU is to provide force health protection by quickly assessing, preventing and controlling health threats in a theater of operations and enhancing organic preventive medicine assets.

"The FDPMU ORE is the capstone event certifying that the team, individually and collectively, is ready to support diverse contingencies ranging from full-scale war and humanitarian missions to multinational global health engagement operations," said Hardy.

Throughout the ORE, evaluators also assessed the team's ability to advise operational line commanders on significant risks, risk management alternatives and their capability to recommend effective intervention measures to protect the health of the troops.

The FDPMU performed extremely well throughout the six-day evaluation, which focused on complex chemical/radiological, disease vector, logistics, microbiology and preventive medicine problems and issues.

Leadership understands the value of having well-trained and well-equipped FDPMU team members providing public health services to deployed war-fighters.

Capt. Martin Kerr, with the Navy's Office of Medical Resources, Plans and Policy (OPNAV N0931), was on hand to witness various ORE events and said he was very impressed.

"The Forward Deployed Preventive Medicine Unit brings extensive environmental sampling and [chemical, biological, radiological] detection and confirmatory capabilities on a theater-wide scale," said Kerr.

"Since their first deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the Navy's Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Units have consistently delivered advanced public health capabilities to deployed war-fighters during contingency, disaster relief and humanitarian mission world-wide, significantly reducing the incidence of disease, non-battle injuries (DNBI)," said Capt. Eric Hoffman, NMCPHC executive officer. "The operational readiness evaluation is the culmination of a comprehensive and intense training schedule, validating that each team member is prepared to deliver a robust public health capability whenever and wherever they are needed."

For more information on preventive medicine tools and resources, visit the NMCPHC website at www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/expeditionary-platforms/Pages/default.aspx.

For more news from Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, visit www.navy.mil/.