MEDCEUR 08 International Exercise
MEDCEUR 08 – international exercise of military medical teams was opened on the 2nd of May 2008 at 10.00 hours in "Knez Trpimir" Barracks in Divulje (Split), Croatia.
17 countries (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, USA, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine) have been participating in the exercise – 15 of them members of PfP and two NATO countries.
MOD State Secretary Mate Raboteg, Deputy Chief of General Staff Rear Admiral (LH) Zdenko Simicic and Chief of Logistics Directorate Brigadier General Josip Stojkovic attended the opening ceremony.
"The aim of this exercise is to train medical personnel of PfP countries for taking care of injured people in mass catastrophes and acquiring of interoperability for international intervention in case of natural and humanitarian disasters. Since in the exercise participate representatives of Ministry of Interior, firemen, civil protection, National Protection and Rescue Directorate, Red Cross, county authorities and hospitals, I express the hope that this joint training will contribute to better integration of military, civil and NGO organizations in order to work more successfully in rescuing human lives in aforementioned catastrophes" said Mate Raboteg at the opening ceremony.
Rear Admiral (LH) Zdenko Simicic stressed out that this exercise would once more confirm the readiness and interoperability of the Croatian Armed Forces among the participant countries in order to achieve better effectiveness in case of various catastrophes and humanitarian crisis.
The commander of the exercise from the US side Colonel Kevin Ross in his turn said: "You will you use all your experience and lessons learned to prepare yourself for response on the simulated natural disaster similar to those that could really happen in this area".
The MEDCEUR 08 international military exercise has been conducted for the first time in Croatia on 1-15 May in "Knez Trpimir" Barracks in Divulje (Split), being organized by the CAF General Staff and US EUCOM.
First part of the exercise has been conducted in classrooms through lectures and courses and by training of setting up and using of field hospital, while the exercise of taking care of injured people is taking place on 10-12 May 2008.