05-12-2023 MAW - Flipbook - Page 4
4 Baltimore Sun Media | Friday, May 12, 2023
Meeting of the military minds
Army field medical laboratory leaders from Aberdeen Proving Ground meet with Polish counterparts in Warsaw
By Walter T. Ham IV
20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear,
Explosives (Cbrne) Command, Aberdeen Proving
Ground
Leaders from the U.S. Army’s only
deployable medical field laboratory
recently met with medical officials and
chemical, biological, radiological and
nuclear experts from the Polish Armed
Forces.
The command team from the 1st Area
Medical Laboratory visited Poland in
support of the U.S. Army Europe-Africa
Surgeon Cell’s regional engagement efforts.
During the week-long visit, 1st AML
leaders toured the Polish Epidemiological
Response Center and Military Institute for
Chemistry and Radiolog. Both Polish organizations have similar missions to the 1st
Area Medical Laboratory.
The 1st AML leaders also toured the
laboratory facilities at the Polish Military
Institute of Medicine - National Research
Institute in Warsaw, Poland, and the
biological and chemical labs at the Military
Preventive Medicine Center in Modlin,
Poland.
Headquartered on Aberdeen Proving
Ground, the 1st Area Medical Laboratory
identifies and evaluates health hazards
through unique medical laboratory analyses and rapid health hazard assessments
of nuclear, biological, chemical, endemic
disease, occupational and environmental
health threats.
From Australia and South Korea to
Canada and Germany, the 1st AML works
with allied forces around the world. The
1st Area Medical Laboratory is part of the
44th Medical Brigade and 20th Chemical,
Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command, the U.S. military’s premier multifunctional all hazards
formation.
American Soldiers and Army civilians
from the 20th CBRNE Command take
on the world’s most dangerous hazards
in support of joint, interagency and allied
operations.
Lt. Col. Nick Nussdorfer, the force
health protection officer in the Office
of the Command Surgeon for U.S. Army
Europe-Africa, said 1st AML brings one-ofa-kind capabilities that increase interoperability with allies and partners.
“U.S. Army Europe-Africa appreciates
the force health protection expertise that
1st AML provides the theater,” Nussdorfer said.
Maj. Suzanne E. Mate, chief of Chemical
Col. Matthew J. Grieser, left, commander of the 1st Area Medical Laboratory, based at
Aberdeen Proving Ground, presents a command coin to Płk. Lek. Med. Przemysław
Makowski, a colonel equivalent and the deputy commander of the Military Preventive
Medicine Center in Modlin, Poland, on March 2. The command team from the 1st Area
Medical Laboratory visited Poland in support of the U.S. Army Europe-Africa Surgeon Cell’s
regional engagement efforts. COURTESY PHOTOS
Leaders from the 1st Area Medical Laboratory, based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, met their
Polish counterparts at the Polish Epidemiological Response Center in Warsaw, Poland, on
March 1. The command team from the 1st Area Medical Laboratory visited Poland in support
of the U.S. Army Europe-Africa Surgeon Cell’s regional engagement efforts.
Threat Assessment for 1st Area Medical
Laboratory, said meeting with allies helps
to keep NATO ready for any contingency.
“It’s better to know your partners before
you have to work together in a high-consequence situation. We learned the strengths
in different mobility platforms for laboratories and the capabilities within fixed
scientific institutions to maintain standards and currency in chemical, biological and radiological (CBR) investigations,”
Mate said.
“This knowledge is invaluable when
determining how to move a sample quickly
and efficiently to characterize a suspected
CBR threat when airlift resources are
constrained or country treaties prevent
movement activities,” Mate said.
A graduate of George Washington
University, Mate has served in the Army for
15 years as both an enlisted and commissioned soldier, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institute of
Health. Mate, a Medical Service Corps offi-
cer who served on a response team during
the 2015-2017 Ebola outbreak in West
Africa, said the visit helped to forge stronger ties with 1st AML’s Polish counterparts.
“We gained an understanding for our
NATO partners’ focus on biomedical and
CBR topics unique to their geographic
region,” Mate said. “In addition, by touring
their biomedical and CBR institutions, we
gained knowledge for resources to process
environmental samples, which enables our
scientists to discuss procedural options to
investigate suspected threats.”
Mate said the 1st Area Medical Laboratory invited their Polish counterparts
to Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort
Detrick in Frederick County, to see their
facilities.
Col. Matthew J. Grieser, commander
of 1st Area Medical Laboratory, said the
visit was an example of how his one-of-akind command supports alliance partners
around the world.
“It was a great opportunity to meet our
Polish counterparts and to learn from one
another,” said Grieser, a native of Mulino,
Oregon, who has deployed to Afghanistan
four times and Iraq five times. Grieser also
served in Haiti, Panama, and New Orleans
following Hurricane Katrina.
“We intend to continue to strengthen
this relationship with our Polish counterparts,” said Grieser. “Poland is a great ally
and it was an honor to visit our counterpart
organizations.”
Lt. Col. Łukasz Krzowski, the Polish
Armed Forces coordinator for the visit,
said collaboration is the key to success in
high stakes CBRN missions.
Krzowski said the visit introduced unit
tasks, capacities and capabilities in biodefense and preventive medicine, adding that
it also helped to define areas for field detectionandidentificationofnaturallyoccurring
orintentionallyreleasedinfectiousdiseases
as well as chemical or radiological hazards.
A former soldier of the Epidemiological Response Centre (ERC) of the Polish
Armed Forces, Krzowski is assigned to the
Biodefense Laboratory, Biomedical Engineering Centre in The Military University
of Technology and still collaborates with
the ERC in the areas of biodefense and
preventive medicine.
“This visit will start collaboration in
biodefense and other hazards in the chemical or radiological area. That means our
future collaboration activities will increase
our knowledge and procedures and lead to
improved areas of interoperability between
our nations,” Krzowski said.