An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

News from the Oklahoma National Guard

NEWS | June 30, 2022

137th SOMDG medical personnel conduct SPP visit to Azerbaijan

By Tech. Sgt. Brigette Waltermire 137th Special Operations Wing

Members of the 137th Special Operations Medical Group (SOMDG) traveled to Azerbaijan to conduct a combat casualty care knowledge exchange with Azerbaijan Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC) Battalion doctors and medical noncommissioned officers during a State Partnership Program (SPP) visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, June 20-24, 2022.

This is the second SPP visit between Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense OCC Battalion doctors and Oklahoma National Guard medical personnel this year.

“This visit helped further our understanding of how the battalion training framework could align with ours to become interoperable with NATO forces for point of injury care and evacuation in the future,” said Lt. Col. Brian Herb, flight physician assistant and air advisor with the 137th SOMDG. “We learned a little when they visited us in Oklahoma earlier this year, but seeing their educational and logistical capabilities helped us find a starting point for discussions on how they can prioritize developing their enlisted corps’ medical skills.”

Helping develop complementary military training doctrine between foreign militaries can be critical when working in proximity to one another in foreign environments. Members of the Azerbaijan military provided support to Afghanistan for many years and were among the last troops who left Kabul International Airport, said Khazar Ibrahim, Azerbaijan ambassador to the United States, on a visit to Oklahoma earlier this year. 

“The U.S. military has been improving its point of injury care based on lessons learned over the past twenty years during the Global War on Terror, so we want to do everything we can to help our SPP partners improve their combat medical doctrine without them having to go through those lessons first-hand,” said Herb.

One of the largest medical engagements was Operation Cherokee Angel in 2007, where members of the 137th Medical Group and the 138th Fighter Wing conducted a humanitarian mission to Azerbaijan. This most recent exchange continued that decades-long SPP collaboration, while allowing 137th SOMDG Air Advisors to learn firsthand how the Azerbaijan military trains its troops for combat medical response and offer suggestions for how they could modulate their training to work toward that NATO interoperability.

“I am on track to become a tactical combat casualty care (TCCC) instructor and have multiple tiers of TCCC training, and something we found on this visit is that instructor exchanges could be very beneficial in helping them customize medical training for their OCC Battalion enlisted personnel,” said Master Sgt. Amanda Stanley, an air advisor and noncommissioned officer-in-charge of flight medicine with the 137th SOMDG. “Moving forward, we hope to set up a series of ongoing engagements with our state partner as we work toward becoming interoperable over the next few years.”

Video by Sgt. Haden Tolbert
Oklahoma Army National Guard hosts Best Warrior
Oklahoma National Guard
Nov. 9, 2024 | 1:30
Sixteen Soldiers from the Oklahoma Army National Guard competed in the 2025 OKARNG Best Warrior Competition at Camp Gruber Training Center, Oklahoma, Nov. 6-8, 2024.

At the conclusion of the competition, Spc. Juan Lopez, a resident of Stillwater, Oklahoma assigned to the 1st Battalion, 160th Field Artillery Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team as a signal operations support specialist, won the title of Soldier of the Year, while Sgt. James Bording, a resident of Claremore, Oklahoma assigned to the 1st Battalion, 279th Infantry Regiment, 45th IBCT as an infantryman, was awarded the title of Noncommissioned Officer of the Year. (Oklahoma National Guard Video by Sgt. Haden Tolbert)

CG:
00:23:15
Command Sgt. Maj. John Hernandez
Command Sgt. Maj. for Oklahoma

00:38:14
Spc. Juan Lopez
2025 Soldier of the Year

00:46:23
Sgt. James Bording
2025 Noncommissioned Officer of the Year
More