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380AEW Article

Flight doc passes 1,000 flight hours

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Michael Means
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Not often do you hear of a doctor in the Air Force reaching 1,000 flight hours.

Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Robert Craig-Gray, 380th Expeditionary Medical Group deputy commander and chief of aerospace medicine, exceeded 1,000 flying hours. He reached this feat during his 301st sortie which happened here, April 5, 2014.

"It feels good to know that you have done something that not every flight doc gets to do in their careers," he said.

During his time in the Air Force, Craig-Gray has flown 68 combat and combat support sorties with more than 400 hours over Afghanistan, Iraq and the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"I always wanted to fly and was intrigued at the thought of being a flight surgeon after a friend of mine noted they had opportunities in the Air Force for graduating medical students," said Craig-Gray.

After speaking with doctors in the local Air National Guard unit, I learned they were looking for flight surgeons, he said.

Craig-Gray, a native of Washington, D.C., who is currently assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., joined the Air National Guard in 1997 during medical school where he went through an early commissioning program to train to become a flight surgeon and joined active duty in 2001.

Flight doctors are primarily responsible for the medical care of all Air Force aviators and special duty operators.

"We are also responsible for the occupational safety of all of the Air Force members who work around base in the various shops to ensure that they stay safe as they go about their duties," he said.

In addition, flight doctors work with bioenvironmental engineering to make sure all airmen have protection from hazards they may face at work and with public health to make sure they have safe food, water and appropriate vaccinations thus ensuring that they are ready to execute their missions.

"While we don't often do "flight surgery" in the air as some people may think; the various intricacies of aerospace medicine and physiology do come into play and we see those when we fly. This is why I encourage all my flight docs to get out of the clinic, fly and go out in the operational shops so they can see their programs and people and what they face in order to provide a better end product to them," said Craig-Gray.

Craig-Gray also completed additional training and is a graduate of the Air Force Residency of Aerospace Medicine Program. These flight surgeons also known as RAMs are selected from the regular flight surgeons throughout the Air Force and receive three years of additional training in specialized topics of aerospace medicine, occupational medicine and preventive medicine.

"RAMs are the Air Force's aerospace medicine experts and after I became a flight surgeon, my next goal was to become a RAM," he said. "I was selected to attend the residency in 2009. Now, I not only do those things that normal flight surgeons do but am involved in mentoring and training them; as well as developing and maintaining the aerospace medicine programs at my base and throughout the Air Force."

"You really get to make an impact day-to-day and contribute to the mission which I really enjoy," he said. "When that stops, then it's time to find something else to do but 15 years later I am still having fun."

Throughout his career Craig-Gray has flown in more than 23 different aircraft including the E-3B, KC-10A, KC-135R, C-5A, C-17A, C-20B, C-21A, C-22B, C-32A, C-37A, C-38A, C-40B, C-40C, C-130H, C-130J, T-1A, T-6A, T-38C, F-16D, UH-60A, UH-1 Huey and Cessna 182.

"I would like to thank all the aircrew I have flown with, and taken care of, for helping to keep me and other flight docs involved in their mission and to help us take care of them," said Craig-Gray. "It really does help us provide the best care we can to them by flying and deploying with them, and staying operational."