{"id":381396,"date":"2022-12-12T06:03:29","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T20:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=381396"},"modified":"2022-12-12T06:03:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T20:03:29","slug":"free-medical-dental-other-services-in-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/free-medical-dental-other-services-in-july\/","title":{"rendered":"Free medical, dental, other services in July"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
From left, Tech. Sgt Otis Youngblood, Lt. Col. Andrew Adamich, Jonas Okawa, Master Sgt. Tammy Annis, Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs\u2019 Daisy Babauta, Capt. Penny Cannon, Liela Yumul, Maj. Samantha Madsen, CBMA chief and special assistant for Military Affairs Glenna Sakisat Palacios, Maj. Daniel LaVorgna, SFC Tausha Harr, CHCC\u2019s John Tagabuel, Capt. Chrystal Warburton, CBMA\u2019s Coryn Achas, LTC Eugene Johnson. In 2023, the \u201cOperation Wellness CNMI\u201d IRT Project will provide residents of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota with full medical support services by the various service components of the Department of Defense. (LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Department of Defense\u2019s Innovative Readiness Training Program will be fielding 125 staff members to the CNMI for two weeks in July next year to provide free health, dental, and optometric services, among others, in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

To be called \u201cOperation Wellness CNMI,\u201d residents of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota will receive free dentistry, optometry, general health and wellness, behavioral health, dietitian, public health education, and veterinary services from July 9 to July 23, 2023.<\/p>\n

This was learned during press briefing last Friday at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan, with Innovative Readiness Training program manager Maj. Daniel LaVorgna saying that \u201cOperation Wellness CNMI\u201d will have the U.S. Army Reserve leading the program, along with the Air National Guard, active-duty U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, and the Air Force Reserves, \u201cso it\u2019s [going to] be very much a joint type mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaVorgna, who was in the CNMI last June during a free veterinary mission where they serviced over 300 pets in the CNMI, said the upcoming project will be \u201cthe first time to do this level of expansion. Last [fiscal] year, we just did vet services\u2014we just did sterilization for animals and some minor surgeries. So, this [coming] year, we\u2019re expanding this to the CNMI population.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaVorgna said that July\u2019s IRT outreach will give the service components of the U.S. armed forces \u201can opportunity to do some hands-on training, because a lot of our training platforms don\u2019t give people the ability to\u2026do some real-world training, so this kind of affords them that opportunity to do that. Of course\u2026for the community, they get the incidental benefit\u2026of the services that we would come on in and provide. It\u2019s a win-win, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is made possible by the Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs, at the direction of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, in partnership with LaVorgna, IRT program manager of the US Army Command.<\/p>\n

CBMA and the U.S. Army Command kicked off their joint IRT project with the initial weeklong planning conference last week.<\/p>\n

CBMA is mandated, in part, \u201cto facilitate the integration of military personnel into our community; to seek out employment and economic development opportunities; and to pursue a mutually beneficial partnership between the CNMI and Department of Defense, among other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through its Community Relations Program, CBMA is tapping into DoD programs that provide mutual benefits to the military and the CNMI community, said Glenna Sakisat Palacios, special assistant for Military Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimilar to the IRT Veterinary Services that was successfully executed last summer, the Operation CNMI Wellness Project is an expansion of our [community relations] program initiative to integrate military resources that would provide impactful benefits to our community, said Palacios.<\/p>\n

She thanked LaVorgna \u201cfor his guidance and support to secure approval of our community application, and for working closely with CBMA and participating partners to bring this much needed services to the CNMI. I also extend our appreciation to both our military and local community partners for their commitments to ensure this important project will be executed successfully this summer for the mutual benefits of our CNMI residents and our military personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaVorgna, for his part, acknowledged Palacios\u2019 role in bringing the IRT to the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot overstate the level of importance that Ms. Glenna Palacios has played in getting this program started,\u201d said LaVorgna. \u201cShe is instrumental in bringing the IRT to the CNMI. She worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get this off the ground, working with me to ensure funding and legal requirements of the application process is met, close coordination among participating units from 14 time zones away, and we could not have done it without her and we definitely appreciate her partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Defense\u2019s Innovative Readiness Training Program will be fielding 125 staff members…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":381397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-381396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}