Photo By Dustin Senger | Spc. John Carter of Martinsburg, W. Va., replaces a valve on an anesthesia unit inside...... read more read more
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar – The U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center Southwest Asia maintenance division discussed training and career opportunities, May 27, at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar, during a national biomedical engineering appreciation week sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation.
USAMMC-SWA provides medical logistics support and equipment maintenance for Central Command combat-support hospitals and clinics in Southwest Asia. Troops perform technical inspections and preventive maintenance checks and services on laboratory, veterinary, dentistry and patient-movement items.
"We're basically mechanics who don't get dirty," says Army Spc. Devon Woodard of Augusta, Ga., one of 25 biomedical equipment technicians serving at USAMMC-SWA. He volunteered for orders to the Middle East while assigned to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas.
Woodard explained the new Medical Education and Training Campus at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The $940-million facility is centralizing Army, Navy and Air Force medical training.
The Army has almost 1,100 biomedical equipment specialists, according to Staff Sgt. Cherish Long of Las Vegas, who is the noncommissioned officer in charge of the USAMMC-SWA maintenance division. She coordinated the biomedical awareness week at Camp As Sayliyah.
"Biomed is a small field," said Spc. John Carter of Martinsburg, W. Va., while replacing a valve and gauge on an anesthesia unit. "That makes it easy to find and get a hold of people. We are connected in a way that I can always call someone I know."
The 424th Medical Logistics Company took over USAMMC-SWA medical maintenance in February. Many soldiers found a familiar face inside USAMMC-SWA.
"I was surprised to see so many people from the school house," said Carter, who specializes in anesthesia equipment with Spc. Andrew Sergeant of Milwaukee, Wis. The two soldiers first met in early 2008, while attending 44 weeks of biomedical equipment technician training at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.
Carter and Sergeant hustle through a steady stream of work inside a trailer littered with parts, tools and manufacturer literature. Adjacent trailers fix surgical instrument sterilizers, portable oxygen generating systems and medical imaging equipment.
Soldiers and Airmen inside a large workshop, located at the heart of the USAMMC-SWA warehouse, toil through ventilators, infusion pumps, defibrillators and vital signs monitors. They accept any item related to combat casualty care.
During a deployment in Qatar, most medical technicians take their skills to hospitals and clinics across Southwest Asia. Carter traveled in March to Kirkuk, Iraq, where an anesthesia system quickly needed calibration. Sergeant is preparing for a 45-day trip in June to explain new equipment at various areas in Afghanistan.
Sergeant is serving a second one-year deployment at USAMMC-SWA. The reservist says he volunteered for orders with the 424th MEDLOG to accumulate three years of active duty service – the time needed to maximize post-9/11 G.I. Bill educational benefits.
The Labor Department estimates a 27-percent increase in medical equipment repair employment opportunities between 2008 and 2018, a rate much faster than the national average for all occupations. The outlook suggests obtaining a bachelor's degree for advancement.
Recent graduates of biomedical equipment training at Sheppard AFB have received more than 70 credits from the Community College of the Air Force. Technicians have been earning an escalating amount of college credits for their military training.
The coursework covers equipment used for medical support, physiological monitoring, diagnostic imaging, surgery, and dentistry, sterilizing and field systems. Credits are also earned in computer-based medical systems; AC and DC circuits; logic circuit analysis and design; and basic solid-state theory.
Spc. Damian Bernardez of New York has helped several soldiers transfer their credits to a distance-learning program at Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J., for a Bachelor of Science in Applied Science and Technology with a concentration in biomedical electronics.
"Thomas Edison accepts the most credits toward a degree in our field," says Bernardez, who earned 73 credits from his military biomedical equipment training.
"We are a tight group of people who take care of their own," says Woodard. "The military is a way to get great training, earn a steady paycheck and make connections."
| Date Taken: | 05.27.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.27.2010 16:38 |
| Story ID: | 50382 |
| Location: | CAMP AS SALIYAH, QA |
| Web Views: | 815 |
| Downloads: | 404 |
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