Page 33 - RADC 2017

Exercise Noble Jump 2
Maj Andrew McCammon, RADC
LCpl Karan Alexander and Major Andrew McCammon from 1 AMR deployed on Ex Noble Jump 2, which took place in May and June 2017. Exercise Noble Jump 2 involved around 2000 soldiers and 500 vehicles from various NATO countries, including USA, UK, Netherlands, Poland, Norway, Spain and Albania, travelling
to and joining with Romanian Forces at the CINCU training area, Romania. The purpose of the Exercise was to test the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) concept.
An MRS was deployed from 1AMR mainly to provide Role 1 medical support for the other exercising personnel but also to help provide medical planning expertise and to demonstrate to other NATO forces our Role 1 medical capability. Included as part of the MRS was the dental team, which was made up of 1 Dental Officer, 1 Dental Nurse, a 301 module, which includes all our instruments and materials, a 544 module, which includes our dental chair and electro-medical equipment, and a 504 module, which is a small emergency dental kit that can be easily carried on foot. The entire dental centre was transported on an FFR Landrover and trailer which travelled from Paderborn, Germany, to the UK, and then onto Greece, through Bulgaria and into Romania, and then back again.
The dental centre itself was a 12x12
tent which we set up adjacent to the MRS superstructure. Emergency dental cover was, therefore, available at all hours during the course of the Exercise for the exercising NATO forces. Dental emergencies treated included pericoronitis, dental abscess and a chipped tooth. CMT’s also received training at the dental centre on how to recognise dental emergencies and refer appropriately. Our deployable dental centre aroused a lot of interest from other nations who were keen to come and have a look at our equipment. We were also given a number of tours and demonstrations of the capabilities provided by the other NATO members which was highly interesting and goes a long way
in improving interoperability between our forces.
offer our expertise to provide training in Dental Emergencies, Medico-Legal issues and Dental Equipment Care to the CMTs.
Although the exercise was largely logistical, we did provide real life support during the maintenance days, enabling us to test the capability of the dental kit in field conditions. While there were issues with kit failures, we were able to treat the majority of cases reporting to us.
As the exercise progressed to CT4 the tempo picked up. The MRS had to relocate a number of times, including the middle of the night and through a storm. We regularly had to ‘stand to’ as we came under indirect fire, and were woken up one night as a man with (fake) explosives attached to him attempted to make his way in to the MRS.
One of the most rewarding scenarios came towards the end of the exercise, as the dental team were asked to take part in Host Nation Support. This involved elements
of the MRS driving in to a local village
and providing medical care to the local population before extracting ourselves. This was a real challenge as my GCSE French proved woefully inadequate when attempting to take a dental history from patients who didn’t speak a word of English.
The Canadian prairie is a challenging environment, with constantly changing weather, difficult terrain and extremely remote. BATUS is an ideal training area
for testing both personnel and equipment. Although I was ready to return to civilisation after 6 weeks, I would recommend the challenge of Prairie Storm to anyone who gets the chance.
RADC BULLETIN 2017 31