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When the majority of people think of Flight Medicine, they picture a clinic for aircrew
members. The 435th Aerospace Medical Squadron Flight Medicine Clinic makes up the majority of the Flight Medicine Flight. But the medical special operations clinic, emergency response services and aerospace physiology are also crucial components of the Flight Medicine Flight.
***image1***Ramstein’s FMC is the largest overseas flight medicine clinic in the U.S. Air Force. Both FMC and MSOC provide primary medical care for all active-duty members who are on flying status and for their families. The active duty population falls into different aviation career fields such as pilots, navigators, flight engineers, load masters, flight attendants, flight nurses, aero medical evacuation technicians, weapons controllers, space operators, air traffic controllers, special operations and parachutists, said Capt. Sharon Moss, 435th AMDS Flight Medicine Clinic element leader.
The MSOC provides primary medical care to 69 geographically separated units, Department of Defense personnel located in 92 countries and to active-duty members on the Personnel Reliability Program. The services offered by both offices include diagnosis and treatment of acute and routine conditions, flight physicals, occupational health exams, minor procedures, women’s health care and pediatrics.
In addition to patient care, the flight surgeons have many operational duties which support the KMC mission. These duties include flying, aircraft mishap investigations, operational unit inspections, reviewing all duty
limiting conditions, industrial hygiene inspections and public health facility inspections throughout the KMC.
Flight surgeons perform flying duties for the purpose of enhancing their ability to understand the flying environment, enabling them to make sound aeromedical
recommendations regarding aircrew members’ fitness to fly.
“Flight Medicine, in conjunction with Public Health, executes the deployment health program and provides food, water and vector-borne disease assessments and surveillance. We also support and maintain the medical equipment packages for NASA’s transatlantic abort landing sites located on Morón Air Base, Spain, and Istres, France,” said Captain Moss.
“Ramstein’s ERS system responds to more than 300 on-base emergencies annually, providing medical coverage from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week,” said Captain Moss. “The ERS and FMCs are trained to respond to airborne emergencies, aircraft mishaps, mass casualties, natural disasters, chemical, biological, radiological/
nuclear, explosive incidents and hazardous material releases. They also provide medical coverage to numerous large events in the KMC.”
The Aerospace Physiology office advocates human performance enhancement by educating more than 1,000 DOD warfighters each year.
“We provide aircrews with health and lifestyle information that impact in-flight performance and reduce tolerances of other flight stresses. We also provide expertise for mishap prevention and investigation support,” said Captain Moss.
The element operates U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s Aerospace Physiology Training program in coordination with the Royal Netherlands Air Force at the Center for Man in Aviation in Soesterberg, Netherlands, she said.
“Flight Medicine is a unique medical flight that provides not only outpatient care to its enrolled members, but also operational support to keep our fliers in the air and to ensure the safety of the KMC,” said Captain Moss.
