NORWICH – Efforts are well underway to bring a large-scale military training exercise to Norwich that will not only improve U.S. Department of Defense personnel, but also provide no-cost health care services to the local community.

A Chenango County coalition of planning and human service agencies, working in conjunction with Southern Tier East Regional Planning and Development and the Department of Defense (DOD), is working out details to bring the training exercise to Norwich. If plans go accordingly, a DOD Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) site will bring more than 100 military personnel to the area to provide residents with basic clinical, dental, vision and veterinary services at no cost.

The exercise will take place from July 11 through July 24. The IRT site would also be available to provide no cost healthcare services to residents in neighboring Broome, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego and Tioga counties. The goal, according to the DOD, is to provide real-world training opportunities for service members and units to prepare them for wartime missions while simultaneously supporting the needs of unpreserved communities.

“This is a training for the military that benefits the community,” said Chenango County Planning Director Donna Jones at a meeting of the county’s Planning and Economic Development Committee last week. Though DOD holds such training events in other locations throughout the country, this is the “first of its kind in the northeast,” she added.