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.

Baltic Bilateral Affairs Officers frequently work together on regional security cooperation issues and realized the overarching concept of veteran care is something the military leadership in the Baltics required assistance developing. Through the auspices of the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC), Project Hope and the EUCOM State Partnership Program (SPP) we set out to familiarize the Lithuanian Military Medical organization and their Ministry of Health with veteran care.

Dr. James Ecklund, Pam McClelland, Lt. Col. Paul Bostrom, Dr. James Polo, and David DuBois

The team members on this project are from diverse backgrounds and all converged on Vilnius, Lithuania, where the events began. David DuBois and Pam McClelland came from Washington, D.C., and represent the Department of Defense Wounded Warrior Program. Their specific specialties are Transition Assistance Programs and the Office of Family Support & Policy. Dr. James Ecklund and Dr. James Polo are both retired colonels from the US National Capital Region and are nationally renowned specialists in neurosurgery and psychiatry. Lt. Col. Paul Bostrom from the 3rd Air Force, Surgeon General Chief of International Healthy Division represents EUCOM. The Bilateral Affairs Officers, Lt. Col. Steve Timmons and Maj. Chris Mackin, round out the team representing the U.S. military in Lithuania and Estonia.

This was the first time most of the team members set foot in the Baltics and many among us were not sure what to expect.

Bright and early Monday morning we traveled from Vilnius to Kaunas to visit the Lithuanian Military Medical Service at the headquarters. The Lithuanian Military Medical leadership provided a detailed brief on their history and current capabilities. Established in 1918 after World War I, their current facilities were constructed in 1919, the facility and organization underwent renovations and improvements in 1927-1933 to become one of the best-equipped hospitals in all of Lithuania.

Their organization was re-established in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union and has underwent extensive modernization to become a highly professional and capable force able to support peacekeeping, combat and humanitarian assistance programs worldwide since 1995.

The Lithuanian military medical services are quite active in supporting coalition forces with more than 150 medics deployed to various operations since 1995. They have also deployed several physicians and nurses to Iraq and Afghanistan. The brief was very interesting and informative and I was surprised at how extensive their military medical capability is compared to other nations in the region.

The Lithuanians were quite interested in the programs DuBois and McClelland briefed and followed up with many questions.

After the briefs, our group traveled to the largest hospital that was built prior to World War II located in Kaunas, Lithuania. We met with the director of the hospital who proceeded to give a very in depth tour of the entire hospital. The most interesting aspect of the visit was learning that the military cooperation with this hospital is very close. All of the military medical physicians and most of the medial personnel were educated in this hospital and also work part time there. We saw that the patients have great water rehabilitation centers with a variety of heated pools and baths. The director was very eager to point out the number of American manufactures of equipment and supplies. We raced through the underground tunnels and toured the hospital in less than 60 minutes and I bet we walked more than two miles! It is a good thing the underground tunnels have a heated walkway, temperatures in the winter months can be very cold reaching -20 C (4F); that's not comfortable if all you have to wear is that paper hospital gown!

Afterwards, our team drove back to Vilnius in time to meet with the Ministry of Health to pave the road for future plans and cooperation. There’s another blog coming about that day’s visits too.

Major Christopher E. Mackin
Bilateral Affairs Officer/Deputy Chief
US Office of Defense Cooperation, Estonia

Note: This is the first in a series of blogs about the team's trip around the Baltic countries. Stay tuned for more!