US military personnel are conducting six days of health services outreach activities and civil engineering projects on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula through Aug. 10 as part of US Pacific Command’s Pacific Angel humanitarian-assistance and disaster-preparedness program. They are working alongside Red Cross and Sri Lankan government officials during the event, states an Aug. 6 release from Pacific Air Forces, the lead agency for Pacific Angel. As part of the activities, medical personnel will provide primary care, physical therapy, optometry, and dentistry in the towns of Alvain North and Atchelu, and civil engineers will help to renovate several schools, states the release. Pacific Angel takes place four times a year in different nations in the Asia-Pacific region. This first Pacific Angel event in Sri Lanka took place in August 2010.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.