Civil-Military Cooperation for Medical care of sailors at sea and ashore was the focus of the 22nd NATO Maritime Medical Conference, hosted by the Irish Naval Service and led by Allied Maritime Command last month in Cork, Ireland.
NATO say that in conjunction with the medical conference, the 46th Medical Naval Panel Plenary took place, serving as a forum to discuss naval medicine and fine tune NATO doctrine.
According to the Alliance:
“The conference included insightful lectures presented by many medical professionals including Colonel Gerald Kerr, Director of Irish Armed Forces Medical Branch, who depicted the past; present and future of Irish Armed Forces Medical Service, Dr.
Johan Ullman, Swedish Navy, who underlined one popular ongoing study on fast patrol boat related injuries and Cdr Itamar Netzer, Surgeon General of Israel Navy, presented a comprehensive overview of Exercise Crystal Sea 18 during NATO Operation Sea Guardian in December 2018 pointing out the importance of cooperation with MARCOM for improving Maritime Medical Support and the ability for MARCOM also to play a significant t role as a maritime advocate in Medical Support Domain.”
Senior medical personnel, from 25 nations (Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Estonia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States of America), representing NATO, Partners and other Nations, presented and discussed naval medicine topics over three days.
“Improving networking and sharing knowledge and best practices in the Maritime Medical domain are key factors to increase cooperation and simultaneously insure the best treatment for our sailors at sea.” said Captain Filippo la Rosa, Medical Advisor to MARCOM and chair of the NATO Maritime Medical Conference.
“The success of this conference is steadily growing, along with its importance over the years and underlines the maritime advocacy role of MARCOM in Maritime Medical Support.”
Cork? Ireland?!?!? A neutral that requires a referendum to send out their grey painted fishing boat to ‘protect us’. Purlease! If this doesn’t sum up the something for nothing approach of international relations, I don’t know what does! About time we started choosing our allies based on the principal of reciprocity.
They’re hosting a conference, nothing else. Not sure what it has to do with ‘the something for nothing approach of international relations’.
First no we wouldn’t as shown by the Med deployment and consideration in joining the Piracy patrols instead. Second Irish forces have worked with and trained with NATO forces before. One of the Sniper competitions was held in Ireland a couple of years ago for example.
they only went for the Guinness!
Look at Ireland’s long standing UN contributions and the number of personnel they have had killed and injured on those operations then wind your neck in.
Absolutely support the UN having a conference in Ireland. But this is about NATO.
The Republic of Ireland is a participant in NATO’s ‘Partner For Peace’!
Have a feeling reading might not be one of Bob’s strong points, so asking him to consider logic may be too stretching…
Ireland has done amazing peacekeeping work over the years under the UN, it is something the country is proud of! But a NATO conference????
Irish neutrality, although a long established part of the country, is nothing but a farce in reality, it was in WW2, and it is now. Shannon Airport is a major USAF stop off site for aircraft on their way over from the states, it is effectively a military base!
Of course in WW2 there were plans for Britain to invade and protect Ireland in the case of a German invasion, British planes, like the flying boats on Lough Erne were aloud to fly over Irish airspace, Ireland would send back allied POWs to Britain when they weren’t really aloud to under international law!
But for the most part Ireland has been neutral, with a slight lean towards NATO etc. But in recent years that has changed a lot, Ireland now frequently operates with PESCO Battlegroups, but Ireland has also been involved in the war in Mali, Ireland has taken a side in someone else war, not as peacekeepers but as supporters of the French side in Mali, that is not neutrality. And as the EU military groups become more integrated this will lessen even more!
But I am very surprised at the NATO conference in Cork, thats very weird and definitely a betrayal of that policy.
I personally think neutrality was adopted because De Valera was a coward and didn’t want to help in the fight to help the continent, but I understand his reasoning! I have believed for many years Ireland should just stop kidding itself and commit to a side, but again I understand why that won’t happen, at least not with NATO, but it may(probably) happen under the auspices of the EU, as we won’t have another choice in the end!
NATO and ” the 46th Medical Naval Panel Plenary” with careful reading, so I think this is the reason.
I know about that..classic!
Not the one about ordering another ship out of its way, is it ?
Not the only conference that was held in Ireland at the time:
https://shape.nato.int/news-archive/2019/nato-sof-commanders-coordinate-in-dublin