Flight Doc in Afghanistan

Photo By Staff Sgt. Victoria Greenia | Flight surgeon Lt. Col. David Jones writes about his experience at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.  

SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT, UNITED STATES

06.02.2012

Courtesy Story

158th Fighter Wing

Story by Lt. Col. David Jones
158th Fighter Wing

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. — There was a time in my life that whenever I traveled, I always saw someone at the airport, either home station or destination or hub, that I knew. It hadn't happened in a while, but I wasn't surprised when I was wandering towards the baggage carousel in Charlotte, N.C., when a man, perhaps mid-late 30's or even early 40's, came walking towards me looking at me as if he knew me.

My brain scrambled as I tried to place him. Did I know him from a hospital I'd worked at, perhaps a church, maybe a neighborhood I had lived in? He seemed enough younger than me that I was sure it wasn't school or medical training, but hey, some people just look younger than their age. I just couldn't quite place him, but as he approached me he extended his hand to shake. In reflex mode I reached out mine and took his. Looking me straight in the eye, he said simply, "Thank you," and he went on his way.

Now I got it. We hadn't met before, but I was traveling in uniform, and he was simply one of the many citizens who wanted to express their appreciation for military personnel. The moment has stuck with me, and it was the beginning of my deployment augmenting the North Carolina Air National Guard to be the flight surgeon in their squadron medical element at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. The NCANG is a C-130 unit, but my duties were much the same as when I have deployed with the VTANG.

People often ask me what a flight surgeon does—they often ask whether I do surgery while in the air. While that would make sense, it isn’t a part of the job description!

So what does a flight surgeon do when deployed? Well the biggest difference between home station and deploying is that we can actually provide medical care! In theater we are not restricted to SABC while waiting for the 911 responders to show up.

So most days began working in the clinic, a two-person shop manned by myself and a Connecticut ANG medic who had also stepped up as an augmentee after the slotted medic broke her leg 3 weeks before the deployment.

Over the two months, we had nearly 2,000 patient visits in the clinic. The majority was for symptoms of upper respiratory infections or congestion related to the dusty air and burn pit smoke (not unlike our trips to Balad). We also had many visits relating to air crew requesting sleeping pills to deal with changing flight schedules. There were occasionally more serious issues such as the scalp laceration resulting from hitting an open file cabinet drawer that required stitches or a strep throat and a fever of 105 that needed transfer to the ER because his blood pressure was so low he could barely stand up. But most of the visits were relatively routine primary care type medicine.

One focus of public health over there (as it is here) was immunizations, and we spent a lot of time giving shots. Taking a page from the VTANG flu-season playbook, I decided it would be easier to take our show on the road, and we made several trips out to the different squadrons we were responsible for (we covered the N.C. ANG C-130 squadron plus three other groups) to make it easier for them to get their vaccinations. We even got the clinic up and running to give smallpox, since that was one of the more common immunizations needed. While the crews appreciated our willingness to come to them, it didn’t make them like the shots any better!

While providing medical care was the main focus of the mission, flight surgeons have a couple of other unique roles that I was able to fulfill while there. Inspections of the aircrew flight equipment shops, gym facilities, living areas and dining facilities are often jointly performed by public health representatives and flight surgeons. You never know what will turn up during an inspection. During a gym inspection, I was surprised to find that the automatic defibrillator did not appear to have been checked in over a year! The good thing is, the other inspections went better!

Unfortunately, the trip afforded me the opportunity to perform another flight surgeon duty: participate in an investigation of aircraft mishaps. When there is an aircraft accident, the flight surgeon is called upon to evaluate the crew and the circumstances of the accident to see what role “human factors” played. Was the crew rested? Were medications or drugs/alcohol involved? Was there some sort of outside stressor (eg, emotional factors, command pressure to accomplish a particularly important mission, etc.) involved? Fortunately, for the two investigations I was running, no one was injured, and while one of the accidents resulted in some very expensive damage, in that case it did not appear the crew had done anything improper.

Finally, one of the fun responsibilities the flight surgeon has is to fly with his/her crews. While flying during my past deployments with the C-130 pilots I had gained a reasonable knowledge of their missions. I did not know any of these crews, and it is important to have a good working relationship with them. The best way to do that is to fly and get to know them. As a flight doc who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty, that meant not only spending time on the flight deck chatting with the pilots during the flight but also pushing pallets, running the locks in the cargo bay and reconfiguring the cargo bay as needed between loads. It is very gratifying to have crews you have flown with subsequently seek you out to see when you can fly with them again. Given the difficulty getting someone to cover my clinic, most of my flying was at night, so I left Afghanistan with the belief that the countryside is pretty much night vision goggles' green!

My two-month deployment passed pretty quickly. It was interesting seeing how the holidays were celebrated (I was there for Thanksgiving and Christmas), and I don’t think I ever need to see another Christmas cookie.

The trip was a great opportunity to show how the Air National Guard works together as a team, with members from outside units supporting a host unit, and then the package seamlessly melding with the active duty Air Force to serve our country.

I don’t know when I will have my next chance to serve in this capacity or whether it will be for with the VTANG or another unit, but the opportunity to serve with our brothers- and sisters-in-arms from outside units is a great experience that I would encourage VTANG members to pursue when they can work it into their schedules.

• Date Taken: 06.02.2012
• Date Posted: 06.12.2012 09:40
• Story ID: 89820
• Location: SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT, US