NATCHEZ — More than 3,000 residents received free health care in Natchez in a little less than two weeks.

Military personnel provided medical, dental and other health care services to residents at the Tricentennial Wellness Innovative Readiness Training medical clinic that set up in Natchez from Aug. 2 through Saturday.

Delta Regional Authority’s IRT Program Manager and Military Liaison Brittney Lindberg said the Natchez mission was extremely successful.

Numbers collected for the IRT clinic show that 3,016 patients checked into the clinic by the end of the day Friday.

The clinic is part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Innovative Readiness Training Program, a military volunteer training opportunity that allows military personnel to train and gain “real-world training” while offering services to underserved and underinsured people.

“We have 137 military personnel on this mission, and I’d like to stress they come from all over the U.S. and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,” Lindberg said. “For them, it is much needed and valuable training. And they get to see first hand what their contributions are doing for the American people.

“This program, at it’s heart, is about building civil-military relations.”

Ultimately, the mission had to conclude a day earlier than expected on Saturday because the supplies brought in were exhausted.

“We knew that it was going to be big just because of how hard the community has worked to get the word out,” Lindberg said. “But I don’t think anyone expected it to be quite this big.

“It has been an overwhelming and tremendous turnout from the community.”

The hardest hit aspects of the mission have been dental and optometry care, Lindberg said. She said that demand is typical at other such missions.

“I would attribute it to most people having health coverage, but they may or may not have dental or optical coverage,” she said. “Or if they do, it is very, very expensive to get these procedures done.

“For someone to get a pair of glasses at no cost, that’s a huge thing for a lot of people.”

Lindberg said she is especially thankful to the community for its contributions. In particular, Lindberg wanted to credit Alcorn State University’s Ruth Nichols, Mississippi State Department of Health’s Madeline England, and local Vietnam War veteran Robert Pernell.

“Anything we have needed, they have made happen,” she said. “Natchez owes the success of the program just as much to the community support as the military.”

As a former member of the armed services, Pernell said he wanted to do what he could to help the military as well as the community in getting access to health care.

“We have a very high concentration of underinsured and uninsured citizens in our community,” Pernell said. “It was important for us as a community to show up and be as supportive as possible and help get the word out.

“And we had a tremendous amount of people waiting in line to be seen.”

Pernell said he felt like the whole community came together to make this a success, including both the county and city governments.

“Everyone was all hands on deck,” he said. “About Natchez and Adams County, it is one city, one county and one people. We demonstrated that by working together.

“Our goal was to get some of our citizens heath care, and it worked, it worked out tremendously.”

England, the community health director for Southwest Mississippi, said the IRT was a great event for the community. England said she has signed up many people for preventative programs, Motivated to Live a Better Life, Tobacco Quitline and tobacco cessation and diabetes self management education.

“Overall it has been an amazing opportunity to link people up with longer-term services we might be able to provide at the health department, and the same for the programs our many partners in the community offer,” she said. “A lot of relationships among community partners have developed as a result of the IRT.”

England said participating in the IRT clinic has been an eye-opening experience.

“It really made it very stark how large the need is for health services in our community and Southwest Mississippi,” she said. “But all the U.S. military people were just incredible partners and willing to work with all of us in the community.

“I can’t say enough good things about them.”

ASU’s special assistant to the president for Community and Economic Development, Nichols said she had been involved with Delta Regional Authority before as part of a leadership institute in 2014. Nichols said was excited when she got the phone call in December about one of the IRT missions coming to Natchez.

“We were fortunate that Alcorn State University and Copiah-Lincoln Community College had the great facilities for the military to operate from,” Nichols said. “It has been hugely successful.

“All you have to do is look at the faces, the smiles, of the people and listen to what they have to say. They are so grateful that this has been offered. These are people who have been waiting on healthcare for years.”

Nichols said a large part of the community has been involved in making this successful. The two colleges, Merit Health Natchez, both county and city government officials as well as neighboring officials from Concordia Parish and Wilkinson and Claiborne Counties, law enforcement with both the city and county, the WIN Job Center, the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce, the Southwest Mississippi Rural Comprehensive Health Department and many other volunteers have all contributed.

“If you don’t think Natchez and Adams County can work together on a project, this is an example that it can,” Nichols said. “The heartfelt willingness to contribute what each group of volunteers could contribute has just been amazing.”

And while the military is leaving town, Nichols said the effort is not over. She said the community still has work to do as follow-up care.

Nichols said representatives from the local physicians offices have given out information at the Alcorn Natchez library.

“There are a wide variety of people out there available to help once this two week project is over,” she said.

Lindberg said that while she cannot pick the locations, she expected the operation to return to Natchez.

“Oh, I know we will be back in the future,” she said. “There is obviously a huge need here.”

Lindberg also said the hospitality and push from the community of Natchez has been important.

“With how hospitable this town has been to servicemen and women, I would come every year if I could,” she said. “Y’all have really hit the gold mine when it comes to having good Samaritans in your community.

“From day one of planning, the community (representatives) has been so on board with this.”