Blog Posts tagged with "Estonia"
Enriching lives in Estonia
On June 1, I had the honor and privilege to represent EUCOM during ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Puka and Voru Estonia. Here I witnessed both a glorious demonstration of the communities’ civic pride and an equally magnanimous gratitude for EUCOM’s partnership in completing these two worthy projects. A kinship with a people never met before developed easily over purposeful work done well and meaningfully.
Puka School Children performing native Estonian song and dance.
The first project was an approximately $317,000 renovation of the Puka School’s roof in Puka, Estonia. The school, built in the 1930s, has continually served as the consolidated school (grades 1-12) for Puka, teaching approximately 120 students every year. The original roof had seen its better days long ago and despite frequent repairs, the challenge to keep out rain was constant. Clearly, this renovation is a vast improvement and will undoubtedly protect Puka’s treasured school long past the time when the grandchildren of current students send their children to learn.
After a delightful and memorable performance of Estonian national song and dance by the school’s children, we had the ribbon cutting and plaque dedication by school and civic leaders, and U.S. Embassy and EUCOM personnel.
The second project was a $259,000 exterior renovation of the South Estonia Hospital’s Special Needs Center in Voru. This project was the second and final renovation phase (previously the center had had an interior renovation done with European Union funding) to a facility that provides essential services to mentally disabled adults requiring assisted living.
South-Estonia Hospital Special Needs Center’s newly renovated exterior.
The dedication included a traditional dance by the center’s residents, a ceremony with local officials, and then breaking bread together in celebration. I left the center with a strong belief that EUCOM assistance had been put to important and necessary use and, moreover, that our assistance was highly valued and appreciated.
Looking at these pictures, I realize what a privilege it was to witness and take part in something that meant so much not only to Estonian civic leaders but more importantly to the students and residents whose lives will be directly and positively impacted by such quality of life improvement projects. No doubt, these renovations will help ensure that Puka and Voru children and adults will continue to receive services in secure and attractive buildings long into the future. I will remember this special June day and the warmth shared by many.
Mike C. Hartzell
Lt Col, USAF, BSC
International Health Specialist
EUCOM Command Surgeon's Office
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The Power of Partnering in the Baltics
In early March, we teamed up with Project Hope, a non-profit medical service organization, to work with us and our Baltic allies in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on some of the most relevant, important issues facing all of our forces.
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Ending the week in Estonia
The final day of the Wounded Warrior team’s trip in the Baltics began with a visit to Magdaleena East Central Tallinn Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Estonia and the best hospital in Tallinn for rehabilitation.
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Day 2: Nothing says spring like fresh flowers.
While visiting Lithuania the Wounded Warrior team and the two physicians from Project Hope drove out to Vilnius University Emergency Hospital (VUEH) located 15 minutes west of the capital, Vilnius. The day’s mission was to deliver medical lectures about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to the staff at a local hospital there.
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Exploring Wounded Warrior issues in partner nations
Wounded Warrior, Veteran care, traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder. All are powerful terms capable of eliciting intense emotions from military service members and civilians alike. For the Baltic nations of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia supporting International Security Assistance Force - Afghanistan it is a term they are becoming more familiar with.
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Operation Moshtarak
And so began the Afghan-NATO offensive into Helmad province, known as Operation Moshtarak – which translates roughly as “Together.” We are focusing on the area around a town called Marjah, where there has historically been a great deal of insurgent activity and heroin production.
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Excellence in Action: Combined Endeavor’s Regional Site in Denmark
This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting the national delegations at Combined Endeavor 2009’s regional site at Bülows Kaserne, Fredericia, Denmark. Delegations at this site are from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden with additional support personnel from the United States, Austria and Germany.
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Prepping for CE09
Tomorrow, I'll be gathering my gear and moving into my temporary home at Banja Luca, Bosnia-Herzegovina to do my part within EUCOM's Combined Endeavor 09 exercise.
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Connecting Stuttgart to BiH
Well, the Tandbergs worked between here and Stuttgart! What's a Tandberg? It is a point-to-point (or multipoint) teleconferencing tool used by many commercial firms as well as by many nations. The screen looks like a portrait-sized computer screen (in other words, a normal computer screen turned 90 degrees) and there's a camera embedded into the top of the screen. With this tool, individuals can sit at their desk and communicate with any number of others for video conferences.
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Transforming the Main Operating Base
Things are going well as Kozara Barracks is being transformed into a large telecommunications site to support the Main Operating Base of Combined Endeavor 2009 (CE09). We are finalizing contracts, continuing to build the main operating base infrastructure, and installing several networks which will serve as the backbone for our daily communications during the communications interoperability testing. There are as many Bosnia and Herzogovina military support personnel on the ground here as there are members from the CE staff and early participants!
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Combined Endeavor 2009
CE – Combined Endeavor – is a large telecommunications exercise sponsored by EUCOM but planned and executed by our partner nations. This year, 2009, we are moving the exercise out of Germany for the first time in our 14 year history to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a big enough challenge planning this exercise, but this year we add the challenge of building a new infrastructure to support the exercise.
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