AFMS Deployed News

The folks at the 447 EMEDS at Sather AB are small in number, but awesome in spirit…

To help alleviate the stress put on the 11 doctors, nurses and medics at the 447th Expeditionary Medical Squadron here, Col. Gregory Biernacki, the 447th EMEDS commander, has implemented training for the other 11 non-clinical members of the staff. The medical logistics, administration, public health, dental and bioenvironmental engineering personnel recently went through two weeks of training to teach them basic medical care, such as inserting an IV, assessing injuries, the proper use of a gurney and emergency room standard operating procedures. “The idea is to get everyone up to a level that they can provide trauma care, stabilization and transport,” said Colonel Biernacki, who is deployed from 192nd Medical Group, Virginia Air National Guard. “We’re trying to get the most bang for our buck with all our people.”

And over at Balad AB, a historic piece of infrastructure is being transferred to Washington DC for display…

The emergency room from the old Balad AB Air Force Theater Hospital, which was a temporary tent structure, was recently dismantled and packaged up. It was shipped April 1 to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, where it is slated for exhibition because it is known, by the medical community, as the place where the most American blood was spilled since the Vietnam War.

And speaking of Balad…an AF doc there received a Purple Heart…

Capt. (Dr.) Adrian Barcus, an intensive care unit staff physician for the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, received a Purple Heart and the Iraqi Campaign Medal from Brig. Gen. Burt Field, 332 AEW commander, at the Air Force Theater Hospital here March 7. Dr. Barcus, deployed from Scott Air Force Base, Ill., was injured in the line of duty March 6 from an enemy attack here.

To all of the Air Force medics serving “Over There” — thank you.

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