Members of the Air Force expeditionary medical support team completed their humanitarian mission in Angol, Chile, on March 26, having built an expeditionary hospital there and helped augment medical care for members of the local community after a powerful earthquake struck Chile on Feb. 27. The 82 airmen of the EMEDS team arrived in Chile on March 10. In less then four days, with the assistance of the Chilean army and US AID, they turned a bare polo field into a fully operational hospital. Together with Chilean medics, USAF medical personnel treated more than 300 patients and performed about 40 surgeries in less than two weeks. On March 24, the field hospital was donated to the local Chilean medical community. It will augment medical care in the region while the main Angol hospital, damaged in the earthquake, is rebuilt. (Angol report by SSgt. Vanessa Young)
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr. assumed leadership of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, succeeding Navy Adm. John Aquilino at a change of command ceremony, urging action amid China's “increasing intrusive and expansionist claims,” on May 3