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Reservists motivated to help others

  • Published
  • By Bo Joyner, Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs
KODIAK, Alaska --  Lt. Col. (Dr.) Joni Scott-Weideman is just one of more than 100 service members from across the United States who is spending long April days here supporting Operation Arctic Care, an Innovative Readiness Training project designed to give military members valuable training while providing much-needed medical services to people in this small fishing village. But her reason for being here is the same as all her fellow Airmen, Soldiers and Sailors.

“It just gives you a good feeling inside to help others,” Scott-Weideman, an optometrist assigned to the 413th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, said Monday as she took a quick break from seeing patients inside what used to be an old grocery store in the downtown area.

Just across a curtain from the makeshift optometry clinic, military doctors and nurses were addressing the general health needs of a host of local residents. On the other side of the optometry section, dentists and dental assistants were taking care of a wide variety of oral health problems. In a small room in the back, specialists from the Naval Ophthalmic Support and Training Activity were assembling glasses as fast they were getting prescriptions from the optometrists. And on the other side of the grocery store, Army veterinarians were making sure Kodiak’s four-legged citizens got the medical care they needed.

Scott-Weideman, a veteran of six other IRT projects in the Philippines, Indonesia and Belize among other places, loves to see the reaction she gets from patients who are seeing clearly for the first time.

“We get to treat patients who have never had an eye exam before, and it’s amazing to see the look on their faces when they are finally seeing like they should be,” she said. “I had a lady in yesterday who works at a fishery, and she told me that she was constantly cutting her fingers at work. I told her, ‘You keep cutting your fingers because you need glasses.’ We were able to get her fitted with a new pair of glasses, and she was able to see clearly. That’s going to be huge for her.”

Scott-Weideman said she really enjoys working with her active-duty and Reserve counterparts from all the other services, but it’s the feeling she gets from helping others that keeps her signing up for IRT projects.

“The training we get is awesome, and it’s important that we work together as a total force, but the best part about projects like Arctic Care is bringing care to people who otherwise couldn’t get it. It’s just a great feeling.”