U.S. and Ghanaian soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines joined together June 10-26, 2008 through a program called Shared Accord to provide medical, dental, optical, and veterinary care in villages of Ghana.

"The Shared Accord exercise has always had the humanitarian assistance aspect to it," said Lieutenant Colonel Jeffery R. Eberwein, with U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe. "However, this is the first year the task force commander has made the decision to have the medical and veterinary aspects as the focus of effort."

Armed with medicines and eye wear, the doctors, dentists and optometrists assisted more than 5,000 Ghanaian men women and children. The U.S. medical, dental and optical staff worked side-by-side with their Ghanaian counterparts and provided various training as the patients were being seen.

Colonel Scott E. Sayre, a dentist, worked with Ghanaian nurse Staff Sergeant Peter Mensah during various exams and treatments.

"Peter is an ear-nose-throat nurse and while he is here he is studying with me on aspects like local anesthesia and oral anatomy," said Sayre. "Projects like this are very rewarding."

Additionally, the team provided de-worming treatment for thousands of animals to improve the health of livestock.

"Our goal is to assist 16,000 animals in de-worming. By removing the parasitic load in the animals it will not be reintroduced for several months," said Army Major James Riche, veterinarian. "In most cases this will result in a 10 percent increase in body weight for the livestock which in turn will benefit the individual families."

According to Riche, the efforts of the veterinary team will reduce the potential for transfer of diseases to humans and will improve the overall quality of life for local families.

"Ghana has had strong relations with the United States, and we want to continue building upon this relationship with projects like this," said Riche. "It is important, and we enjoy doing it."