A US Air Force medical team from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB. Tex., is hard at work in Esmereldas, Ecuador conducting the location’s first Medical Readiness Training Exercise—known as MEDRETE—which concludes Friday. Two surgeons, a nurse anesthetist, two medical technicians, and an anesthesiologist are performing more than 37 operations to repair cleft lips and cleft palates after reviewing some 90 patients who came from all over Ecuador.
U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter jets were observed flying toward the Middle East on Feb. 11, the latest step in the U.S. military buildup in the region as the Trump administration weighs possible strikes on Iran.

