Medical units from the continental United States and professional filler personnel from Tripler Army Medical Center will conduct a field training exercise, known as MEDEX 2000, from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 at Sagami Depot. This exercise will give these units a better understanding and hands-on experience of conducting medical operations within Japan. MEDEX 2000 is designed to train all services to include both the reserve and active duty components.

William A. Hansche, Health Service Support Planner for the United States Army in Japan, says this will be the first opportunity to identify medical procedures and operational deployment timelines. He said the FTX will deploy in six phases:

・Phase I: Plan, coordinate the reception, staging, onward-movement and integration, site/facility development and mission resourcing. Phase I took place from June 11 to July 11.

・Phase II: Preparation, functional packaging of active protection system (APS4) and health facility conversion planning. Phase II will take place from July 12 to Aug. 11.

・Phase III: Complex, reception, staging, onward-movement and integration and site/facility establishment. Phase III will take place from Aug. 12 to Aug. 27.

・Phase IV: Execution of Joint FTX. Phase IV will take place from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2.

・Phase V: Stabilization, inventory and functional re-pack. Phase V will take place from Sept. 3 to Sept. 14.

・Phase VI: Redeployment. Phase VI will take place from Sept. 15 to Sept. 30.

The mission is to set up a 504-bed, deployable field hospital and provide medical care as part of their training.

To set up the hospital, markers are placed on the spots where each section of the hospital will be laid down. It is then completely set up by another team from the hospital unit. Hansche says everyone involved in the FTX will learn a lot about readiness.

"We're going to find out how long it really takes for the medical staff to set up a deployable field hospital, and be able to put the lessons learned to good use," he said.

Lt. Col. Douglas Phelps, the deputy chief of staff of logistics for the medical plans and operations division, says this exercise will help identify and hopefully remedy any shortfalls within the operation and is a very important mission with USARJ.

MEDEX 2000 is going to give medical and operational units assigned to Japan during contingencies better preparation in the event that something like this really happens," said Phelps.

Phelps also says the exercise has been planned for over a year and was approved by Maj. Gen. Joseph Inge, former USARJ commander, last June.

This mission will definitely show how much work our soldiers can do in a short amount of time. It will be a great chance to find out what they're capable of," said Phelps.