Medical airmen are making preparations to deploy to Belize in the coming weeks to treat some 15,000 Belizeans during US Southern Command’s New Horizons ’14 exercise. The outreach event runs from April 1 until around the end of June, SSgt. Adam Grant, a spokesman for 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern), told the Daily Report. Also participating in New Horizons will be US soldiers and Belizean and Canadian personnel, according to a Feb. 19 AFSOUTH release. “This training will improve our skills to provide essential and emergency care during humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief efforts throughout the globe,” said Col. Bruce Edwards, commander of the exercise’s expeditionary medical operations squadron. Airmen from the 355th Medical Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., will deploy to Belize City and Corozal as well as treat patients in remote jungle villages. The combined team will provide specialized dental, dermatological, and obstetric/gynecological care as well as generalized medical treatment, according to the release. 2014 marks the second consecutive year that Belize is hosting New Horizons. (Davis-Monthan report by MSgt. Kelly Ogden)
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
