ROCK SOLID WARRIOR Published May 10, 2008 386th Expeditionary Medical Group SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Staff Sgt. Misty Smith Public Health Craftsman Home unit/base: 72nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. How do you support the mission here? My Mission here is the prevention of disease, disability, and premature death of my fellow Airmen. I accomplish that mission through several means. I brief warriors about disease prevention and the importance of what and why they should do certain things in a deployed area to safeguard their health. I inspect all food facilities on base to ensure the food we eat is safe for consumption. In addition, I keep the leadership informed with weekly reports on personnel immunization status. How many times have you deployed and what makes this one unique? This is my first deployment and it has been a good experience for me. Coming here has enabled me to see what a vital role my job plays in the support of the overall Air Force mission. We all come together from different bases and work hard together to get the job done. All of our jobs are an important part of our mission. How does your job differ in a deployed environment vs. home base? As a public health technician I do the same thing here as I do back at home station. The exception to this, is that at this base my job has a broader focus. I am responsible for four key areas which include community health, force health management, occupational health, and deployments. While deployed, I deal with each of these key areas on a daily basis. At home base I focus on one specific key area for a year. My job has tremendous impact here, because everyone is vital to the mission, and we all live in a very close environment. The potential for rapid spread of disease is very real in the forward deployed setting. The spread of sickness within the camp could rapidly jeopardize the mission.