More than 20 US service personnel with Joint Task Force-Bravo, including airmen, deployed Sept. 23 to Laurel, Costa Rica, to take part in a US-Costa Rican medical-readiness exercise Sept. 25-27 in two remote villages. US airlift was a huge contributor, making it possible for the medical teams to access remote villages that otherwise would be extremely difficult to reach due to the terrain and lack of roads. “The access JTF-Bravo provides with its airlift and medical supplies to people in need is just tremendous,” said Dr. Mario Lopez, JTF-Bravo liaison officer. The village of La Pena, for example, had not been visited by medical professionals in about five years, he said. The goal was to provide medical care to an estimated 2,000 patients in these villages. (Laurel report by SSgt. Joel Mease)
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
