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380AEW Article

Medical group ‘maintains’ 380th AEW’s primary asset

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Amanda Savannah
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Pilots execute missions, logisticians prepare the base for operations, security forces members defend the base and maintainers keep aircraft and equipment operational.

None of these operations could take place without the military's primary asset - its people.

The 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's people are cared for by the 380th Expeditionary Medical Group.

The medical group includes Air Force and Army medics, and flight surgeons and medical technicians in the operations group. Master Sgt. Eric Nelson, 380th EMDG medical operations flight chief, said seven Army medics, led by Sergeant First Class Shane Sanders, work rotations in the clinic in addition to the 1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment's Patriot battery site here.

Col. Paul Gardetto, 380th EMDG commander, said the medical group's primary mission is prevention of illness and injuries, and when they fail to do that, "provide the finest care available." That care is available 24 hours a day by nurses, technicians and doctors through both office hours and on-call after hours.

"We have the capability of having patients come in ... for things like sick call, injury or illness," said Nelson, a Hudson, Wis., native deployed from Offutt AFB, Neb. "But if they can't make it to us, we have our ambulance operations where our medical technicians can respond to them, pick them up and bring them back here for care."

If an emergency situation calls for a higher level of care, the clinic can also refer patients to nearby civilian hospitals or use the aerial medical evacuation system to take them to another location in the region, said Capt. Brandy Dales, 380th EMDG chief nurse.

The clinic also focuses on preventing illness before it occurs in the first place. One of the ways they do this is through immunizations.

"During our rotation, we have been No. 1 in (U.S. Air Forces Central) for immunizations as far as percentage given," said Dales, a Lakeview, S.C., native deployed from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. "We do really well with that process, and we really try when patients come in ... to make sure they're up to date before they leave the (clinic) so we can make sure they're immunized."

Usually the two main immunizations here are anthrax and smallpox, Nelson said.

"But the main one (now) that we just received is our flu vaccination," he said.

"The flu vaccine is a huge deal here because of the close quarters and the amount of people that are here," Dales said. "We have to make sure that everybody's immunized against the flu or it could cause an epidemic ... if we actually had an outbreak of flu. It would be very dangerous not to be immunized against the flu in a situation like this."

Dales said caring for people here is what she enjoys most about her job.

"When people are away from their families and they're sick, it's a really terrible time to be without your family," she said. "Being able to be here for people and be able to be their support system whenever they are sick is very rewarding."

"The medical clinic capability is really important to the population on the base, just like the maintainers are important to the aircraft," Nelson said. "It's our job to not only have good preventative medicine for these people, but to respond in case of illness or injury to keep them going since they are the primary resource on this installation."