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Flight surgeons keep 18th Wing aircrew fit to fly, fight, win

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Hailey Davis
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  During the Civil War, doctors called regimental surgeons were assigned to fighting units. However, when the Army Air Corps came into existence in the 1920s, stressors such as G-forces, spatial disorientation and oxygen deprivation became issues for pilots.

Due to these stressors and the need for flight surgeons, flight medicine became a career field in order to provide specialized care to members on active flying status, as well as to their families.

"This field came about back when aircraft first became a part of the military," said Lt. Col. James Bermudez, 31st Rescue Squadron flight surgeon. "The leadership at the time found that just like they need maintainers to be dedicated to keeping an aircraft going, maintaining it and servicing it, it'd make sense to have maintainers for the pilots, so to speak, as well, so that's where the concept of a flight surgeon or doctor came from."

Bermudez is one of five active flight surgeons assigned to the 18th Wing, with two currently deployed and three on station attached to the flight medicine clinic and the various flying units on Kadena. These flight surgeons are physicians who focus on the health needs of aircrew members and their families.

"My number one mission is to support the flying community, which includes pilots, navigators, and enlisted aircrew like flight engineers or gunners, flying linguists, etc," Bermudez said. "I support primarily through helping them stay as healthy as they can and educating them on nutrition, proper exercise, and rest. When they do become ill or injured, we're able to help them get better as quickly as possible so they can get back to their job."

By establishing trust, flight surgeons not only know aircrew members but they also know aircrew families, he said.

"By us supporting the flyer's needs from the broadest perspective, meaning taking care of their family, knowing their family, and knowing their children, we can best support the flyer and that's a big reason why the Air Force has included the family members in the medical care," Bermudez said.

Flight doctors with a family medicine specialty particularly benefit from allowing spouses and children in flight medicine care because they are able to continue practicing family medicine.

Although flight surgeons have a family medicine background, they must go through a specific training course in order to become a flight surgeon.

"We go through the Aerospace Medicine Primary course and it's an eight week training course where we are introduced to the different stressors and hazards of the flying environment, which includes things like G-Forces, spatial disorientation and oxygen deprivation," Bermudez said.

One main reason flight doctors are assigned to aircrew is that they know the hazards flying poses and the stress it can put on a service member.

"Being able to fly with us allows them to observe our mission, see what stressors we have in our job and it gives them a window into our world so they can better assess our needs," said Capt. Benjamin Botnick, 33rd Rescue Squadron pilot. "They know the specific regulations that dictate what medicines we're allowed to take, what procedures we're allowed to have done, what affects our flying status and they have experience in human factors beyond what a family medicine doctor would have so they can assess our condition."

"If we're overly strict with clearing flyers to return that can lead to unwanted manning reductions however, if you're excessively lenient about medically clearing flyers then that can affect flying safety," Bermudez said.

Bermudez added that family medicine doctors don't know the work environment their patients are in as well as flight surgeons due to the fact they don't have dedicated time to go fly on a regular basis or go to the squadrons because they are needed in the clinic.

However, Bermudez said that, in his experience of being able to go out to the squadrons and interact with them on a first-name basis, he's been able to see how, if he wasn't there at that moment to speak with them, some of their medical issues could have gone unnoticed and could have impacted the mission negatively.

"I have a great trusting relationship with (aircrew members) so I'm able to identify things (with them) and give them advice and recommend whether or not it's something they should come and get examined for medical care," he said. "I know that if I hadn't been at the squadron on a regular basis and knew the aircrew, a lot of those things would have been missed and their medical concerns and questions would not have been addressed. I can see a potential for those to have caused a problem in flight."

The personalized care provided by flight surgeons isn't something aircrew members take lightly.

"I think Doc Bermudez is awesome," Botnick said. "I've dealt with other flight doctors in the past and he's really dedicated to everything he does. Anytime he's sitting in the office, it doesn't matter what time of the day, you can always come in and see him."

Flight medicine also offers sick call for aircrew and their families, which is something family medicine does not offer.

"If I have something that's wrong that I think is going to affect my job, I go in (to the clinic) between 6:30 and 9 a.m. and the doc is going to see me and they are going to evaluate my ability to fly, prescribe me medications if I need them, and sign me up for an additional visit if I need that," Botnick said. "Just knowing that I can walk in there any day of the week and get seen by somebody is good because you never know when you're going to wake up and something is going to affect your ability to fly."

Whether in the clinic, on the flight line or in the air, flight medicine keeps Airmen flying, ensuring safety for aircrew and their families alike.