Medical readiness center opens at Camp Bullis

  • Published
  • By Steve Elliott
  • 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) --  A new era in military medical readiness training opened at Camp Bullis June 25, as Air Force officials cut the ribbon on an $18 million Medical Readiness Training Center.

Center officials will host all initial, sustainment and future medical readiness training. The center will also allow officials to increase joint interoperability and knowledge, and expand the scope of current and future medical readiness.

The 882nd Training Group relocated from Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, to the 28,000-acre training site on San Antonio's northwest side. An estimated 6,500 Airmen will transition through Camp Bullis this year prior to arriving at their deployed location.

"This is a dream come true," said Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Charles Green, the Air Force surgeon general. "We began Combat Casualty Care Course training at Camp Bullis, and the Army has been graciously hosting us for almost two decades.

"The goal from the beginning has been to have a place that would allow all the services to train together and to know exactly what the equipment sets are going into war," General Green said. "Thanks to 2005 (Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission) mandates, we've actually put a training facility out here, combining the assets from the 882nd TRG and Air Force Materiel Command assets from Brooks AFB to establish a single training site."

The new facility includes six classrooms, four dormitories, three multipurpose buildings, a dining facility, a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and 10 training pads. In addition, five training aircraft have been moved to the site so students can get training in aeromedical evacuation.

Courses ended at Sheppard AFB in April and are transitioning to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Camp Bullis.

"The magic of this place is not what the Air Force is bringing," General Green said. "The magic is the co-location of the Army's (health care specialists), the Combat Support Hospital, hopefully one of these days the Navy Fleet Hospital, so that when people come here to train, they see exactly who they'll be working with and understand how the system comes together."

The 882nd TRG's mission is to develop, conduct and evaluate total force military medical service/medical readiness training for 15,000 members annually from four uniformed services.
As it relocates to Camp Bullis, the group will be made up of members from the 882nd Training Support Squadron and the 381st, 382nd and 383rd Training Squadrons.

"The Army trains 400 combat medics out here every 16 days," General Green said. "The Air Force is going to be bringing out teams, typically around 75 for the expeditionary medical systems and about 50 for the aeromedical evacuation training, with probably two to four courses going each month."

General Green serves as the functional manager of the Air Force Medical Service. He advises the secretary of the Air Force and Air Force chief of staff, as well as the assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, on matters pertaining to the medical aspects of the air expeditionary force and the health of Airmen. He exercises direction, guidance and technical management of more than 42,800 people assigned to 75 medical facilities worldwide.

"In the last seven years that I've been involved with this, we've seen training progress from where you would have to pretend what it was like going to war to the current expeditionary medical support training where people see what they're going to see when they deploy," the general said.

"Our hope is to incorporate other aspects of training, and the folks will be exposed to convoy training, and even see what goes on in prison operations," General Green added.

"The ability to train out here, in terms of field environment and with the actual equipment they will use when they deploy, is unlimited," he said. "It's an amazing thing.

"I am thrilled that after 18 years of planning to be able to see this come to fruition," General Green said. "I commend everyone for the work they have done to make this a reality."