Fitness center becomes aeromedical facility

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Heather Shelton
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
One of the fitness centers here became a contingency aeromedical staging facility March 23.

The staging facility, the first of this type stood up by the Air Force since Operation Desert Storm in 1991, is designed to hold injured servicemembers who have been medically evacuated from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Seventy-one airmen from McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., and 15 from Westover Air Reserve Base, Mass., deployed here to set up the staging facility. The facility contains medical supplies and 110 cots, said Col. Mark Smyczynski, an Air Force Reserve officer deployed from Westover ARB. The team consists of physicians, nurses, medical technicians, pharmacists, dietary specialists, mental health specialists and logistics specialists.

"We got here and hit the ground running," said Smyczynski. "By (March 25) we were fully operational, ready to sustain any incoming soldiers awaiting a flight out."

Once the injured receive any necessary care from Landstuhl Army Medical Care Facility, they will be cared for at the staging facility until flying out. According to Smyczynski, most injured will be kept at the facility for two to 72 hours.

"I consider this a distinct honor to serve as commander of these great folks," said Smyczynski, a radiation oncologist in Massachusetts. "It's a tremendous privilege to serve my country and its servicemembers."

For one medic, while the task at hand is a bit scary, it is also exciting.

"We're becoming a part of history," said Tech. Sgt. Colleen Hitt, a 14-year Air Force veteran from Westover. "I have complete faith in everyone's capabilities. This is what we're trained to do -- we wouldn't be here if we weren't ready to work the mission."

What may be scary to some is a relief to others.

"To be able to have this facility here if we need it is very comforting," said Lt. Col. Mark Koeniger, 86th Aerospace Medicine Squadron commander here. (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)