Reserve officers and Sailors with Operational Health Support Unit Bremerton, formerly Reserve Naval Hospital Bremerton, recently finished a two-week support operation at Naval Hospital Bremerton.

About 80 reservists from 19 detachments were on board in support of fleet hospital training in Camp Pendleton, backfilling positions vacated when about 150 active duty personnel from NHB attended. Reservists supporting NHB ranged from Seaman to Captain and included hospital corpsmen, nurses, doctors and medical service corps officers.

“I think our Sailors have done absolutely great here,” said Operational Health Support Unit Bremerton Commanding Officer Capt. David J. Misisco. “They stepped right in and did exactly what they’re trained to do.”

According to Misisco, most of the reservists who support NHB do the civilian equivalent to the jobs they hold in the Naval Reserve, which makes transition into the hospital virtually seamless, aside from minimal refresher training on proprietary protocols used at NHB.

Operational Health Support Unit Bremerton was deployed to NHB for four months in 2003 backfilling positions when Fleet Hospital Bremerton deployed to Rota, Spain in support of the Global War on Terrorism. 

“Supporting NHB in the absence of their active-duty Sailors,” said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Robert B. Still, Operational Health Support Unit Bremerton Detachment Headquarters, “is a nice change of pace from my full-time job. It’s nice to know you’re helping support a military hospital when they really need it.”

Still, a reservist who deployed to NHB in 2003, works in the mental health department of the hospital providing outpatient care duties. He does inpatient mental health care as a civilian and said this makes supporting NHB very similar and a nice change of pace.

“The reservists do really well in my department,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marissa Martens, leading petty officer for the mental health department.  “Most of them have served here before, so they’re already familiar with the environment, which allows the clinic to run as smoothly as it would any other time of the year.”

Martens said the experience most of the reservists have from their civilian jobs, coupled with their great attitude and motivation make it hard to tell the clinic’s permanent staff is gone. And they do it with less people than the clinic usually has, she added.

“The yearly two-week operational support and monthly training we do is all geared toward preparing for a long-term deployment in case the hospital loses troops to an overseas deployment,” said Misisco. “I’m confident saying we’re always ready for that to happen. We did it successfully in 2003, and we’ll do it again when the situation arises.”