Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Housto —
Army South brought representatives together from multiple
agencies in San Antonio to practice roles participants would play during
reintegration of Department of Defense members during a rehearsal of concept
drill June 28-29.
The event included guest speaker Christopher Clouser, a Navy
SEAL pilot who survived a plane crash in Colombia in 2013. While four people
died, he and one other person survived with multiple injuries.
Clouser described the experience for the trainees and shared
his thankfulness for the reintegration system, as well as for his Columbian
army rescuers.
Clouser, who sustained second- and third-degree burns, a
head wound, deflated lung, broken ribs and other injuries, said he and his
people were on the ground in FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia)
territory for about 10 hours and wouldn’t have survived another day if they
weren’t rescued.
“It was a coordinated effort with Columbia’s medical people
to get us out and transport us to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio,”
he said. “That saved our lives. What you do here concerning reintegration is
critical and means a lot.”