Air Force medical squadron is part of Landstuhl team

For the past 16 years, the 435th Medical Squadron has had the privilege of being an integral part of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center team. Since 1992, approximately 300 Air Force medical technicians, nurses, doctors and support personnel have served side-by-side with Army Soldiers, host nation personnel and American civilians at the largest U.S. hospital and only U.S. tertiary care medical center outside the United States.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, LRMC has grown to a team of more than 2,900 that incorporates joint military services, including some 370 Navy Reservists assisting with the Global War on Terror mission.

“Now one of the busiest military trauma hospitals in the world, LRMC’s medics have become world renown, working hard with civilian experts and U.S. university visiting professors to achieve the status of Level II Trauma validation by the American College of Surgeons,” said Col. Dean Bricker, 435th MDS commander.

Although the medical squadron Air Force medics are integrated throughout the hospital, there is one very unique element the Air Force brings to the fight. The 435th MDS supports five critical care air transport teams.

Each CCAT team consists of a critical care doctor, an Intensive Care Unit nurse and a respiratory technician. Equipped with specialized equipment including portable, battery-powered ventilators, monitors and IV pumps, they escort critically injured warriors on flights from forward hospitals to LRMC, or from LRMC to the major military medical centers in the U.S.

Colonel Bricker said that the 435th MDS enjoys wonderful synergy with LRMC. The 435th MDS medics are able to maintain cutting-edge war-time trauma skills and be ever ready for personal deployments while also making vital contributions to the LRMC GWOT mission, treating more than 48,000 sick or wounded OEF and OIF warriors in the past five years.

“While we are forever loyal to the Air Force and our home unit (435th MDG, 435th Air Base Wing), it is a tremendous privilege and incredibly rewarding to serve in this joint environment,” said Colonel Bricker.

No matter what color the uniform or how diverse the lingo (“Hooah,” “Above all,” “Sea power”), every LRMC teammate understands there is only one standard of medical care and one focus of efforts.

“In the MDS we remind ourselves of that fact every day as we don our unit caps embroidered with the 435th Medical Group logo, ‘One Team, One Mission,’” Colonel Bricker said.

(Courtesy of 435th Medical Squadron)