Training in a Real-World Setting

By Capt. Teresa Nelson
Army News Service

EL SALVADOR (April 14, 2000) -- Since February, about 2,000 service members from the United States and Puerto Rico have been spending two-week deployments in El Salvador, practicing their military skills in a real-world scenario. Active Army and Army Reserve, Army and Air National Guard, Marine Corps Reserve, Navy and Air Force personnel are participating in Nuevos Horizontes 2000 to better prepare themselves for mobilization. Before the training mission ends in May, more than 50 units will have worked with Joint Task Force Santa Fe on engineering and medical projects across El Salvador's Chalatenango department.

"Nuevos Horizontes provides construction engineers, military police, medical units and other combat service support units with the best possible skills training and small unit battle-focused training," said Col. Clyde M. Leavelle, task force commander. "There are no simulations. It borders between training and operations, and it's all done in a foreign culture and a joint/combined atmosphere."

The American engineers assigned to build schools and drill wells work side-by-side with the Comando de Ingenieros de la Fuerza Armada (CIFA), Salvadoran military engineers. Both the CIFA and U.S. engineers have varying degrees of knowledge and expertise, depending on background and rank. "The training is designed to provide a forum to exchange experience and knowledge," said Lt. Col. Edgardo Romero, the Salvadoran combined deputy commander for the task force. "It's not just about mixing mortar and laying block. It's much more than that."

The Salvadoran government selected the Chalatenango region to benefit from this year's exercise. Four schools and an extension to a medical clinic will be built, and six potable water wells will be drilled during the four-month exercise. The Air Force's 823rd RED HORSE, from Hurlburt Field, Fla., established the base camp and poured foundations for the schools and clinic, then. The 365th Engineer Battalion from Pennsylvania took over at the Santa Fe school site, while the Marine Corps' 6th Engineer Support Battalion from Illinois took on construction at the El Amatillo school site. During each rotation, another phase of the schools' construction is completed. The 844th Engineer Battalion, out of Tennessee, is rotating units to complete Nueva Trinidad and El Sol school sites.

Medical readiness teams, or MEDRETEs -- including physicians, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians and preventive medicine instructors -- will conduct medical assistance visits to 15 villages throughout Chalatenango. The five medical readiness teams include the Army's 324th Combat Support Hospital from Florida and 405th Combat Support Hospital from Connecticut, which will complete three of the rotations; the Air Force's 7th Medical Group from Texas; and the Navy's 4th Medical Group from Washington, D.C. Each two-week rotation conducts medical readiness team training in three or four villages. More than 150 U.S. military doctors, dentists, nurses, and veterinarians are working with 38 El Salvadoran medical personnel to treat more than 6,000 patients during the MEDRETE exercises. Patients must first attend a preventive medicine class before they are screened and treated.

Nuevos Horizontes 2000 has drawn a lot of media attention, with local reporters visiting base camps and training sites. Advertisements for the MEDRETEs are broadcast on radio with dates, locations and times. El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson both attended the February inauguration ceremony for Nuevos Horizontes, along with more than 700 community members, dignitaries and media.