Operation Enduring Freedom

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A U.S. Air Force Airman describes procedures in the pharmacy to the Kandahar Air Wing Flight Surgeon and Dentist during a visit the two had to the 451st Air Expeditonary Wing Medical Clinic to see how a USAF medical clinic conducts operations. (Photo courtesy of US Air Force/RELEASED)

Kandahar Air Wing medical personnel visit 451 AEW medical clinic

Published Dec. 14, 2010
By MC2 Vladimir Potapenko
438th AEW PA

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Afghan Air Force Kandahar Air Wing's Flight Surgeon and Dentist recently visited the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing Medical Clinic to see how a US Air Force medical clinic provides services to its members.

The Kandahar Air Wing will soon open its own aeromedical clinic to provide new medical capabilities to the growing KAW.

The visit to the 451 AEW covered a wide range of topics such as conducting sick call, managing regular appointments and periodic physicals, running a pharmacy and providing dental routine medical care. When completed and staffed, the KAW clinic will have 18 trained physicians, dentists, medics and support personnel capable of offering basic medical, dental and aerospace medicine services comparable to US Air Force medical clinics.

This visit is a follow-up to an earlier KAW - 451st medical interchange concerning KAW's developing aeromedical evacuation capability. With assistance, the Kandahar Medical Clinic has conducted and supported AE missions within southern Afghanistan and to also safely move patients between Kandahar and Kabul for advance medical treatment and recuperation. Since March, 2010, the Kandahar Air Wing has supported 54 AE missions and moved 144 litter and 236 ambulatory patients by Afghan Air Force fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft, including an interoperability demonstration of the Afghan National Security Force and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force medical systems earlier this year.

When complete, the Kandahar Medical Clinic will be part of a growing Afghan medical system capable of providing for the health and long-term care of the Afghan military and police and the people they serve.