Protecting the US and Coalition Force in Southern Afghanistan

In the summer of 2009, a team of Navy Individual Augmentees formed an 11-person preventive medicine unit to support the expansion of US Armed Forces in Southern Afghanistan. This team, modeled after an Army preventive medicine unit, consisted of an environmental health officer, an entomologist, and 9 preventive medicine technicians. Since this was a “first”, the team called themselves the 1st Preventive Medicine Detachment and this designation was used throughout the deployment. Among the many challenges of the deployment, the team was exposed to austere living conditions, overcame cultural differences between the US Services, had the opportunity to provide preventive medicine support to British, Canadian, and Dutch Forces, and was able to provide preventive medicine instruction to Afghanistan military medical personnel. Faced with multiple challenges, this is a story of lessons learned and success in a Joint Operating Environment.