1 ÄMARI AIR BASE, Estonia – If a Soldier participating in DEFENDER-Europe 21 in Estonia starts feeling ill and is exhibiting signs and symptoms of COVID-19 – he or she will meet these two Army officers very quickly.
Army 2nd Lt. Ryan Alfalaij is the COVID-19 isolation facility officer in charge at Ämaria Air Base, and Capt. Abigail Peloquin is the base operations support officer in charge at the air base.
Peloquin said there are 11 COVID-19 isolation facilities, or ISOFACs, supporting DEFENDER-Europe 21 located across the entire exercise’s footprint.
“Basically every single country DEFENDER-Europe 21 touches, there’s an isolation facility,” Peloquin said.
If a Soldier participating in DEFENDER-Europe 21 here in Estonia – either at Tapa Barracks or Ämaria Air Base – is showing signs and symptoms of COVID-19, the team at Ämaria would pick them up and transport them to the ISOFAC to be quarantined and tested, said Alfalaij.
1 TAPA, Estonia – DEFENDER-Europe 21 is a highly complex, multinational, joint exercise involving over 26,000 forces from 26 nations conducting operations across more than 30 training areas in 12 countries. But how do you support all these troops logistically?
That’s a feat all to itself and one not taken lightly.
Army Capt. Triada Cross knows exactly what it takes to support DEFENDER-Europe 21. She’s the commander of the Base Operating Support-Integrator cell in Tapa, Estonia, for exercise Swift Response 21, one of several exercises being conducting simultaneously as part of DEFENDER-Europe 21.
“As the commander of BOS-I, I’m in charge of all the life support for all the U.S. Soldiers here in Tapa,” said Cross, whose normal job in Wiesbaden, Germany, is Contingency Command Post company commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, U.S. Army Europe and Africa. “I’m the tie between the support that’s happening on the ground and the units th