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Preventive Medicine Unit Prepares For Iraq

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060630-09
6/30/2006

By Journalist 1st Class Jim Bane, Fleet Public Affairs Center Atlantic

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Members of Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit (FDPMU) East, Team 7, participated in a two-day course at Naval Station Norfolk June 24-25 that trained them to look for potential breeding sites for diseases or areas that may hold hazardous materials.

The course, led by Navy Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 2 Field Analytical Science Division’s Greg Crisp, was the first training session before FDPMU-7’s upcoming deployment to Iraq.

“These FDPMU teams have been utilized by joint forces repeatedly because they are versatile, have a small footprint but provide a lot of capabilities that can help field commanders maintain the health and safety of deployed forces,” said Capt. Michael Oraze, commanding officer of FDPMU-7.

In the classroom, Crisp trained FDPMU-7 members on advanced techniques of the latest equipment available to FDPMU-7, a man-portable, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) called the HAPSITE. The HAPSITE Smart Chemical Identification System is a field unit for detecting volatile organics, said Crisp.

HAPSITE is currently used in Afghanistan. The second HAPSITE system will accompany members of FDPMU-7 when they deploy to Iraq.

“They will be using it every day,” said Crisp.

FDPMU-7 is scheduled for a second training session in July before deploying to Iraq.

The classroom portion of the exercise allowed the students to learn the HAPSITE as well as the computer software that analyzes the data provided by the HAPSITE system.

The subsequent field training exercise will let FDPMU-7 members experience a simulated chemical release, during which they will gather environmental samples and determine what course of action to recommend.

In addition to the HAPSITE system, FDPMU-7 members are trained in expeditionary logistics.

“This subject covers procedures of who controls how we get assets and how we get those assets from storage to the operational environment,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Jorge Tarata.

July 10, the two units will begin a weeklong training program. Both units will perform field exercises involving taking and testing samples.

Although not involved in medical treatment, FDPMU-7 does analyze human tissue, testing for diseases. They also test insect samples.

“We are not a medical treatment unit,” said Oraze. “We can augment the organic medical assets of the deployed units as needed.”