"Before us lay Mongolia, a land of painted deserts dancing in mirage; of limitless grassy plains and nameless snowcapped peaks; of untracked forests and roaring streams... The hills swept away in the far-flung graceful lines of a panorama so endless that we seemed to have reached the very summit of the earth."

In 1922, the anthropologist Roy Chapman Andrews expressed these thoughts as his first impressions of Mongolia. In February 1999, U.S. Army Special Forces medical personnel attached to Operational Detachment Alpha 151, joined by U. S Air Force medical personnel, conducted the fourth annual Joint/Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program called BALANCE MAGIC in this same Mongolia. While the Mongolia the American military personnel visited in 1999 had the same panoramic geography as in 1922, it was a changing country, undertaking a new life as a democratic nation.

A patient receives dental care from Sgt. 1st Class Dennis Norton of the U.S. Army Special Forces, during a Mongolian-U.S. dental civic action program in BALANCE MAGIC 99-1.

Since the dramatic changes that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the government of Mongolia has sought to reach out internationally, including bringing the Mongolian Armed Forces into contact with foreign forces for beneficial exchanges and modernization. An important goal is to prepare Mongolian forces to be able to participate in cooperative international military operations such as peacekeeping forces. BALANCE MAGIC 99-1 was another step in Mongolia's program to increase the expertise and interoperability of its forces with those of other nations.

JCET BALANCE MAGIC 99-1 focused on conducting a Medical Civic Action Program (MEDCAP). A MEDCAP has the advantage of providing the opportunity of sharing U.S. military medical training with Mongolian military medical personnel, while actually providing a service of great benefit to the Mongolian citizenry. For BALANCE MAGIC 99-1, this involved 10 days of exchange training, during which Mongolian and U.S. military medical personnel provided medical care for the residents of the towns of Dzuunbayan and Sainshand, approximately 500 km south of the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

A combined Mongolian-U.S. medical team was established for the MEDCAP. Two doctors from the Mongolian Armed Forces joined three U.S. doctors, who were assisted by a U.S. Army and an Air Force enlisted medical specialist. Also, a combined dental team was established pairing lst Lt. Gana of the Mongolian Army with U.S. Army Capt. Kalish.

In 10 days, the Mongolian-U.S. MEDCAP team provided triage and medical care for approximately 2,000 people of the towns of Dzuunbayan and Sainshand. The dental team examined an estimated 1,700 people, extracting hundreds of teeth and providing basic dental care, dental advice, and dental health kits to hundreds more. About 50 school children were selected daily, based on medical or dental need, for treatment by the binational teams.

Maj. Batsaihan, Chief of the Paratroop Service, lands at Punstigarazzo Drop Zone, during a Mongolian parachuting demonstration in BALANCE MAGIC 99-1.

Concurrent with the medical activities, BALANCE MAGIC 99-1 also included cross training in cold weather survival in what the U.S. participants agreed was very cold weather, indeed. Mongolian military personnel demonstrated food procurement techniques in the bleak environment of the wintry countryside. Search and rescue operations and aerial resupply training was conducted by U.S. Army and Air Force personnel, who demonstrated aerial bundle dropping techniques. Bilateral cooperation in all BALANCE MAGIC training events was superb, as the Mongolians and Americans worked together. An example of the cooperation was evidenced by three U.S. Air Force Combat Control Team members who surveyed a drop zone for a parachute jump by Mongolian troops from a Mongolian Mi-8 (HIP) helicopter.

The American military participants gained a deeper appreciation of Mongoliaís ancient heritage and culture from their Mongolian military hosts who provided cultural programs on the weekends at museums and a monastery. All U.S. participants came away from BALANCE MAGIC 99-1 impressed by their new friendships and the new skills they learned from the Mongolians.