Services blend as one team at training event

  • Published
  • By Bo Joyner, Headquarters Air Force Reserve Public Affairs
KODIAK, Alaska --  You see a lot of different battle dress uniform camouflage patterns at an Innovative Readiness Training event. There’s Air Force and Army green mixed with a healthy dose of Navy blue. And although you can’t tell it from anyone’s uniform, there are active-duty, reserve and National Guard members from all three services working seamlessly together to get the mission accomplished.

Currently, more than 100 service members are teaming up for Arctic Care 2016 in Kodiak, Alaska. Working with the Kodiak Area Native Association, the Airmen, Soldiers and Sailors are providing dental, optometry, medical and veterinary services in the villages of Ouzinkie, Port Lions, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Akniok and Karluk.

They’re providing some much-needed medical care to people who have limited access to it, but they are also getting some valuable training working with people from their sister services.

“You do see a lot of different uniforms here, but every uniform has ‘U.S.’ on it, so we’re really all on the same team,” said Senior Airman Jesse Craig, an ophthalmic technician assigned to the 910th Medical Squadron at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio. “We’re here for the same cause, and everyone has come together as a team really well.”

Craig said he was a little nervous before he got here, and he tried to learn all of the different services’ rank structures so he wouldn’t miss any customs or courtesies. But he said he was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone has pulled together.

“The communication between everyone has been great. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know more about the other services,” he said

Capt. Lisa Alimenti, a health care administrator assigned to the 940th Aerospace Medical Squadron at Beale Air Force Base in California, agreed.

“You really don’t see different uniforms or different colors here,” she said. “What you see is people coming together to make things happen. It really is the total force at its best.”