ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal – Military medical personnel from Senegal, the United States, Austria and Italy trained together across three hospitals in southern Senegal during Exercise African Lion 2026.
The multinational medical readiness exercise, or MEDREX, was conducted April 25 to May 8 as part of African Lion 2026 through the Department of War National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program, which has partnered Vermont and Senegal since 2008. The exercise brought together U.S., Senegalese and allied military medical personnel to exchange expertise across specialties, including surgery, emergency medicine, behavioral health, biomedical equipment maintenance, dentistry and Tactical Combat Casualty Care, while refining their ability to provide care in austere environments.
U.S. Army Col. Scot Tebo, command surgeon for U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, said the exercise improved coordination and readiness between partner forces operating in real-world environments.
“Medical Readiness Exercises allow multinational medical teams to exchange expertise and strengthen their ability to operate in complex environments,” Tebo said.
“Training alongside our Senegalese, Austrian and Italian partners improves coordination, readiness and our collective ability to provide care during operational missions.”
Medical teams treated patients at Ziguinchor Regional Hospital, Hospital De La Paix and the Military Hospital of Ziguinchor.
At Hospital De La Paix, May 6, U.S. Army Capt. Nicholas LeBeau, a nurse with the Vermont Army National Guard, scrubbed in to assist Senegalese providers during an emergency cesarean section.
LeBeau said the mission exposed medical personnel to conditions difficult to replicate in traditional training environments.
“By working in these more austere environments, we learn what to do without,” LeBeau said.
As surgeons prepared for the procedure, Italian Army Capt. Simone Campani, an emergency physician, supervised a Senegalese anesthesiologist as he placed an epidural to numb the patient before surgery. Campani had spent the previous days training with the anesthesiologist on epidural techniques and emergency anesthesia procedures.
Campani said health care partnerships create opportunities to build trust between partner nations while improving readiness for future missions.
“When you want to build cooperation and trust, one way that is always better is to work on health care,” Campani said.
Elsewhere in the hospitals, multinational teams exchanged Tactical Combat Casualty Care techniques, repaired medical equipment and treated dental patients alongside Senegalese clinicians. A small team of interpreters supported providers throughout the exercise, helping bridge language and cultural barriers during patient care and medical training.
U.S. Army Capt. Lance Jandreau, a behavioral health officer with the Vermont National Guard, conducted counseling sessions at Hospital De La Paix with hospital workers and patients experiencing challenges ranging from chronic stress and trauma to domestic violence and suicidal ideation.
“The problem isn’t them,” Jandreau said. “The problem is a challenge they are facing, but they have an equal amount of power and ability to overcome it and change it for themselves.”
As the exercise drew to a close, U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Tim Farrow, a flight paramedic with the Vermont Army National Guard and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the MEDREX, learned that a local Senegalese man working at the gas station near the team’s hotel had been living with severe pain because he could not afford dental treatment. Farrow coordinated care between the patient, the Senegalese military hospital and Austrian dental personnel participating in the exercise, who provided treatment pro bono.
Farrow said interactions like that extended the mission's impact beyond the hospital walls and strengthened relationships within the local community.
“Those are the things that we hope will go back to the citizens in the neighborhoods of Ziguinchor and greater Senegal and bolster the rapport that our nations will be maintaining in years to come,” Farrow said.
“I am just so incredibly proud of what this MEDREX team has done,” Farrow said. “Our U.S. forces, our Austrian partners and our Italian partners are all such caring, compassionate and giving people. They brought every last ounce of themselves to the table for everybody we worked with, and I could not be prouder of what they’ve done.”
U.S. Army Col. Christopher Gookin, commander of the Vermont National Guard Medical Readiness Detachment, said the mission strengthened readiness while allowing medical teams to work directly with Senegalese partners in clinical environments.
“That’s the greatest strength of these Medical Readiness Exercise missions – not just what is provided, but what is gained through partnership,” Gookin said.
Conducted during African Lion 2026, or AL26, the MEDREX highlighted the Vermont National Guard’s State Partnership Program relationships with Senegal and Austria, bringing partner forces together in Senegal for multinational medical training while allowing medical personnel from the United States, Senegal, Austria and Italy to strengthen multinational readiness capabilities and exchange medical knowledge in resource-constrained environments.
AL26 is U.S. Africa Command's largest annual joint exercise, designed to strengthen the collective security capabilities of the U.S., African nations and global allies. Co-led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, or SETAF-AF, from April 20 to May 8, and hosted in Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, AL26 involved over 5,600 personnel from more than 40 nations, using innovation to drive partner-led regional security.