WEBVTT 00:01.914 --> 00:05.164 (man speaking Spanish) 00:09.497 --> 00:10.973 - [Narrator] Dr. Jose Cangas, DDS 00:10.973 --> 00:14.677 knew pretty early in life that he wanted to be a dentist. 00:14.677 --> 00:15.510 - [Jose Cangas] I always knew I wanted 00:15.510 --> 00:16.343 to be in the medical field. 00:16.343 --> 00:18.694 ^My mom was a travel agent and our dentist 00:18.694 --> 00:21.852 ^used to use her services whenever he was traveling. 00:21.852 --> 00:23.522 This guy was always going to all sorts 00:23.522 --> 00:25.520 of cool places which meant two things. 00:25.520 --> 00:27.052 Number one: he had free time or 00:27.052 --> 00:28.258 he could set his own schedule to go 00:28.258 --> 00:29.412 on vacation whenever he wanted. 00:29.412 --> 00:31.498 Number two: he could afford my mom's services 00:31.498 --> 00:34.565 which meant he had a little bit of money in his pockets. 00:34.565 --> 00:35.684 I thought, "Okay, I want to be like my dentist. 00:35.684 --> 00:37.749 He's a super cool guy who always has time to travel and 00:37.749 --> 00:40.017 he's got the the money to do it." 00:40.017 --> 00:41.871 - [Narrator] Major Cangas is normally at his 00:41.871 --> 00:44.349 state-of-the-art clinic in North Carolina, 00:44.349 --> 00:46.521 but today he's providing free services 00:46.521 --> 00:48.170 in a cramped dental van, deep in the heat 00:48.170 --> 00:50.337 of a border town in Texas. 00:50.865 --> 00:51.698 - It's a tight space. 00:51.698 --> 00:53.934 You don't have room to dance around. 00:53.934 --> 00:57.980 You can't move without getting out of people's way 00:57.980 --> 01:00.374 or being in people's way and then 01:00.374 --> 01:03.841 we just have less equipment to work with and so 01:03.841 --> 01:05.717 when I'm done with this patient here, 01:05.717 --> 01:06.919 I may need that same instrument for 01:06.919 --> 01:08.294 my patient that's sitting over there 01:08.294 --> 01:10.019 so it's up to my tech to get it 01:10.019 --> 01:11.314 cleaned and sterilized in time for 01:11.314 --> 01:13.674 me to start using it over there. 01:13.674 --> 01:14.677 - [Narrator] He's spending his summer on 01:14.677 --> 01:16.812 an innovative readiness training exercise 01:16.812 --> 01:18.275 that brings reserve soldiers from 01:18.275 --> 01:21.058 civil operations, medical, and engineering groups 01:21.058 --> 01:22.548 into areas that are suffering 01:22.548 --> 01:25.138 from little to no infrastructure resources. 01:25.138 --> 01:28.548 This one is on the outskirts of Laredo, Texas. 01:28.548 --> 01:29.939 - [Jose Cangas] What happened is that there was 01:29.939 --> 01:32.897 access to land for people to build homes on 01:32.897 --> 01:35.475 where there wasn't any infrastructure, 01:35.475 --> 01:37.056 so there's no running water, so people 01:37.056 --> 01:39.570 would have to bring water and keep it in barrels 01:39.570 --> 01:41.147 in these sorts of areas, it's not like 01:41.147 --> 01:43.210 you can dig wells because it's so dry. 01:43.210 --> 01:44.198 And that's something that you hear about 01:44.198 --> 01:45.481 in third world countries, you'd never think 01:45.481 --> 01:47.595 that it's happening within our borders. 01:47.595 --> 01:49.201 But it's their home, it's their land, 01:49.201 --> 01:51.368 it's their walls and their roof so why would they leave? 01:51.368 --> 01:52.847 It's all that they have even though it's not 01:52.847 --> 01:56.430 what we would consider a livable condition. 01:58.193 --> 01:59.733 - [Narrator] It's a situation Major Cangas 01:59.733 --> 02:01.233 knows a lot about. 02:02.941 --> 02:04.099 - [Jose Cangas] I was born and raised in El Paso, 02:04.099 --> 02:06.307 which is another border town just like Laredo. 02:06.307 --> 02:07.541 It's basically just like this community. 02:07.541 --> 02:08.984 The neighborhood that I grew up in 02:08.984 --> 02:10.255 looks just like the neighborhood 02:10.255 --> 02:11.584 that surrounds this community center, 02:11.584 --> 02:13.084 it's no different. 02:13.664 --> 02:17.831 Literally half the ladies in my chair remind me of my mom. 02:18.752 --> 02:21.157 And if I put myself in their position, 02:21.157 --> 02:22.828 if my mom were in such a place 02:22.828 --> 02:25.007 where she didn't have access to care, 02:25.007 --> 02:26.691 then I'd be so thankful to have a group 02:26.691 --> 02:28.522 of army reserve dentists and physicians 02:28.522 --> 02:30.864 and optometrists come in and provide that service 02:30.864 --> 02:32.507 that they don't have access to. 02:32.507 --> 02:33.857 It's just such a great thing that 02:33.857 --> 02:37.690 our training needs happen to meet their needs. 02:37.851 --> 02:39.200 - [Narrator] The training the reserve soldiers 02:39.200 --> 02:40.545 have received while caring for the people 02:40.545 --> 02:43.096 of south Texas has proved indispensable, 02:43.096 --> 02:44.826 allowing them the opportunity to work 02:44.826 --> 02:47.391 on the needy while saving taxpayer money. 02:47.391 --> 02:51.058 But for Dr. Cangas, it goes beyond training. 02:52.040 --> 02:53.115 - I've gotten a lot of hugs and 02:53.115 --> 02:55.615 nobody's tried to kiss me yet, 02:55.653 --> 02:57.677 but mostly it's because they've got gauze in their mouth 02:57.677 --> 03:01.260 because they've just had a tooth extracted.