Three OEM-trained medical maintenance technicians deployed on short notice to bring a joint force partner’s scanner back to full mission capability
When a computed tomography scanner went down at a forward medical facility in the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility, no one on site had the factory training to fix it. On short notice, a three-person U.S. Army medical maintenance team deployed to the site, and the scanner was back in service in less than 24 hours.
The partner agency asked U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command (AMLC) for emergency help in September. AMLC’s Medical Maintenance Management Directorate quickly assembled a “fly-away” team from two of its units: the Medical Maintenance Operations Depot in Tracy, California (MMOD-CA), the Army’s center for technical excellence for medical imaging equipment, and the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center-Europe (USAMMC-E).
The team
The team included Staff Sgt. Victoria Finley of USAMMC-E and Army civilians Fernando Gonzalez-Rodriguez and Christopher Ito of MMOD-CA. All three are trained original equipment manufacturer (OEM) technicians certified to maintain and repair that specific CT scanner model.
Finley is USAMMC-E’s only biomedical equipment specialist, military occupational specialty 68A, who holds the additional M1 skill identifier, which qualifies soldiers as advanced CT system experts.
“That advanced training puts her in a category of her own, and sending high-caliber NCOs on high-visibility missions like this strengthens our credibility and highlights our joint capabilities,” said Maj. Marjorie Lutz, support operations officer at USAMMC-E.
Once on site, the joint military and civilian team diagnosed the fault and returned the scanner to fully mission-capable status in under 24 hours, restoring diagnostic imaging for service members in the region. The fix avoided the need to evacuate the equipment or send it back to the continental United States.
“These technicians are absolute professionals and artisans in their skillsets,” said Isaac Newman, director of MMOD-CA. “MMOD-CA provides a service in austere environments that keeps the warfighter sharp and at the highest readiness possible.”
From emergency fix to ongoing support
Building on the mission, leaders are working toward a formal maintenance support agreement with the partner. Under such agreements, AMLC provides scheduled parts replacement, software upgrades and annual maintenance.
Wes Ladlee, acting deputy director of the Medical Maintenance Management Directorate, said the proposed partnership is projected to deliver significant overall cost savings while giving the Army’s civilian and uniformed technicians valuable real-world experience.
“Ultimately, this effort represents the core of medical maintenance optimization, leveraging specialized Army capabilities to empower readiness for the joint force, reducing sustainment costs and keeping critical diagnostic equipment online in contested environments,” Ladlee said.
AMLC, headquartered at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is a major subordinate command of U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, which leads sustainment of medical devices.
