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By
Staff Sgt. C. Todd Lopez
Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON -- Airmen
bound for a career in the Air Force Medical Service will
start off by training in a joint environment if all Base
Realignment and Closure recommendations are approved.
The changes will not completely homogenize training for
enlisted medical specialists, but they will allow all
the services to share resources, said the chairman for
the medical joint cross service group for BRAC 2005.
"The recommendation is to move all Air Force medical
training out of Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, to Fort
Sam Houston, Texas," said Air Force Surgeon General
Lt. Gen. (Dr.) George Peach Taylor Jr. "That's where
the Army school house is."
Part of that recommendation is that Navy officials also
move their enlisted medical training to San Antonio.
"Think of it as a university campus, with a Navy
college, an Air Force college and an Army college for
enlisted training," Taylor said. "They will
be able to share resources, lab and class space, and teaching
and administrative staff. They will work together, like
we do in wartime."
The general also said each service, while working together
to train its medics, would still maintain unique training
tracks for its people. Airmen will still train to the
Air Force's unique mission.
"The challenge is to put the curriculums together,
look for the common areas, and not lose the fact these
are still Airmen in training," he said. "They
will not be purple medics; they will be Airmen medics."
Besides its focus on military medical training facilities,
the joint cross service group also looked for ways to
optimize how the services provide medical care and conduct
biomedical research.
All services conduct various forms of biomedical research.
The general said the group felt it best to merge much
of that research into joint activities.
"We recommended the creation of joint centers of
excellence," the general said. "This means bringing
together the best research and development, and acquisition
professionals from the Army, Navy and Air Force and putting
them in a location that makes the best possible sense."
The general said the group suggested the creation of six
joint centers of excellence to conduct biomedical research.
Those centers include an aerospace medicine center at
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; a chemical defense center
at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.; a biological defense
center at Fort Detrick, Md.; and center for battlefield
health and trauma at Fort Sam Houston.
The group also recommended realigning the availability
of medical care at facilities nationwide. This included
recommendations to realign Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, D.C., and medical facilities in San Antonio.
"In the National Capitol Region, our group felt we
didn't need four hospitals," the general said. "A
wise investment would be to have two military hospitals
in the nation's capital. Our recommendation is to have
a 165-bed hospital at Fort Belvoir, Va., and create the
new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center by building
up the Bethesda campus. We expect these to all be jointly
staffed."
Currently, the four hospitals in the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan area are Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., Malcolm
Grow Medical Center at Andrews AFB, Md., and the DeWitt
Army Community Hospital at Fort Belvoir.
The general said infrastructure already in place at the
Bethesda Naval facility, and the age of infrastructure
at Walter Reed make the Bethesda site an ideal location
for development of a larger, more modern joint medical
facility. Recommendations by other BRAC joint cross service
groups will increase the size of Fort Belvoir, an already
busy military community just south of Washington, D.C.,
making that location ideal for the region's second military
hospital.
The group also recommended realignment of medical care
facilities in the San Antonio region. Most notably, the
group suggested inpatient care at Wilford Hall Medical
Center at Lackland AFB, Texas, be moved to Brooke Army
Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston.
"We suggested that instead of running another hospital
at Lackland, we install a new, almost 500,000 square foot
ambulatory surgery center and outpatient facility,"
he said. "Combined with new construction at Brooke
Army Medical Center, this will rebuild the medical infrastructure
in San Antonio and make it ready for the 21st century
military."
Despite the suggested realignments to improve the DOD's
medical infrastructure, Taylor said what matters most
has not changed.
"Nothing in the basic recommendations that came out
of our group changed the level of care we can provide,"
he said. "It is the same care, but maybe in a new
location. In many places, we recommended closing inpatient
care, but we wanted simply to move that care to a neighboring
facility or a civilian facility."
Even in the communities outside Cannon AFB, N.M. and Ellsworth
AFB, S.D., where there is a recommendation to close the
entire base, plans are in the works to ensure military
retirees in the area are taken care of.
"In those places where the BRAC commission recommends
closing, we are working with Tricare contractors to ensure
there is a good transition plan for retirees," he
said.
Taylor also said that none of the recommendations of his
joint cross service group are final until BRAC recommendations
are approved by the president and Congress this fall.
