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AFRS covers Dominican Republic humanitarian mission

  • Published
  • By Dale Eckroth
  • Air Force Recruiting Service Strategic Communications Division
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic --  An Air Force Recruiting Service creative team returned this week from the Dominican Republic where it photographed and videotaped Air Force medics providing healthcare during a medical humanitarian mission. The video and images will be used in a new five-CD health professions package slated for release later this year.

Tech. Sgt. Ken Raimondi, the noncommissioned officer in charge of AFRS Broadcast Operations and Master Sgt. Scott Reed, the AFRS national advertising photographer, traveled to the Dominican Republic to showcase Air Force members treating patients in field conditions.

The team accompanied the 910th Medical Squadron from Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, as part of the total force participating in "Beyond the Horizon 2009 Caribbean," a joint Department of Defense and interagency humanitarian civic assistance program that concluded this week.

Planning for the AFRS mission began in early March. Sergeant Reed coordinated the team's visit through the 910th MDS, U.S. Southern Command and State Department.

"It's really been an eye opener for us," said Sergeant Raimondi. "The first day we traveled to Azua, there were long lines, a lot of dirt and a lot of poverty. It was a rough area, but the people were very receptive. Day two was the same scenario but in a different town [Padre de Las Casas]. The conditions were a little better and the residents seemed to be in better shape, but the lines were still long, and the doctors were still working hard to help as many people as they could.

"We were able to shoot some great video of doctors, nurses, optometrists and dentists helping patients," he added.

In between shooting photos and assisting Sergeant Raimondi with interviews, Sergeant Reed was called into action as a translator. Although the Dominican military and local communities provided translators, the clinics became overwhelmed at times with patients. Using his conversational Spanish skills, Sergeant Reed helped bridge the language barrier between medics and patients.

Sergeant Raimondi, a former enlisted accessions recruiter, said the humanitarian footage will definitely help recruiters. 

"You always have to use the 'see-say' concept in recruiting. If you're going to tell something to someone, they might believe you. If you show them, they're going to believe you," he said.

He pointed out that with video a person can 'see' the military does more than go to war; Air Force medics can truly make a real difference in people's lives. 

"That's what America is all about," he said. "It's helping one another."

AFRS contract advertising agency GSD&M will produce the health professions CDs, which will also include interviews with Air Force health professionals from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. The CDs will include physicians, nurses, dentists, biomedical sciences corps and general health professions. AFRS plans to distribute the package to health professions recruiters and core directors and will add them to the new health professions national convention display.

In addition to using the humanitarian photos for national advertising and literature, AFRS will include Sergeant Reed's photos in the convention display and on airforce.com.