Airmen and other US military personnel assigned to the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, participated in the grand opening ceremony for the new medical clinic in the Kyrgyz village of Nizhne-Chysk, announced Manas officials. Making the $100,000 project possible was the assistance of the Transit Center’s theater security cooperation division, the US Embassy in Bishkek, and US Agency for International Development, according to Manas’ Nov. 22 release. “I am very happy that a byproduct of the US military presence in Kyrgyzstan is a wonderful project like this 130 square meter clinic, which will help support the health care needs of 5,000 local villagers,” said Col. Corey Martin, who manages the Transit Center as commander of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing. The clinic opened on Nov. 15. The facility’s construction was completed ahead of schedule, states the release. The United States supplied basic medical equipment, such as examination tables, scales, and diagnostic equipment. (Nizhne-Chysk report by Capt. Martha Petersante)
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.