A local Guyanese boy, cuts the ribbon for Blueberry Hill’s newly constructed community center during New Horizons training exercise 2019 closing ceremony in Linden, Guyana, Aug. 22, 2019. The New Horizons exercise 2019 provided U.S. service members an opportunity to train for an overseas deployment and logistical requirements it entails. The exercise promoted bilateral cooperation by providing opportunities for U.S. and partner nation military engineers, medical personnel and support staff to work and train side by side. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Mayrem Morales)
Exercise New Horizons 2019 came to an end with a closing ceremony at the Blueberry Hill community center, Aug. 22.
“Our teams aim to work side by side with our partner nation and forge lasting relationships that tie our two countries closer together in good will,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Andrew Croft, 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) commander. “Looking out at this crowd and the end result behind me, all of this combined with hard work, I’m certain you have succeeded here with this team in New Horizons 2019.”
Since the start of the exercise in May, the New Horizons team built three community centers and a women’s shelter, as well as participated in several medical outreach events in the local communities.
“In this exercise in Guyana, we have accomplished way more than we had set out to do,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Kenneth Bratland, 346th Air Expeditionary Group commander. “We just ended up with some great (service members) who were really motivated and worked really hard. We exceeded every single measure that we expected to get.”
A few of the milestones that the New Horizons team had set at the beginning of the exercise were surpassed by large numbers in patient encounters and building timelines.
“We operated on way more patients than we expected,” Bratland said. “We did more eye surgeries than we planned on doing. We did more women’s health surgeries than we had planned. We saw thousands of more patients at the (medical readiness training exercise) and with the buildings and construction efforts, we were able to complete them ahead of schedule.”
During the two months of medical outreach events, there were a total of 13,446 total patient encounters, which included animal treatments and vaccinations.
For the construction sites, the Air Force and Army engineers completed four buildings three weeks ahead of schedule.
New Horizons exercise is not new to Guyana. In the last 20 years, U.S. service members have participated in the exercise under U.S. Southern Command and 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern Command), three times. The structures completed during previous iterations are still being used today.
“This is our third time being here. We were here in 2004, 2009 and 2019,” Bratland said. “The people here are familiar with New Horizons. They appreciate what we do and appreciate what we bring.”