United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine

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The United States Air Force Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) is a United States Air Force (USAF) organization that focuses on education, research, and operations consulting worldwide in aerospace and operational medicine. USAFSAM was founded in 1918 to conduct research into the medical and physiological domains associated with human aviation, and as a school for medical officers trained to support military aviation operations, then was initiated as a flight surgeon. The school supported the early military flight from World War I through the evolution of flight and into the modern era. USAFSAM conducted medical research and provided medical support for early US space operations beginning in 1947 through the establishment of NASA in 1958. After the creation of NASA, USAFSAM continues to actively support civilian and military manned space missions through clinical and physiological research. USAFSAM is the oldest continuously operating school for aviation surgeons and other operational medical personnel of its kind in the world. USAFSAM is located in Dayton, Ohio at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and is part of the 711 Human Performance Wing (711 HPW) and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Video United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine

Missions

Education

USAFSAM provides residential and distance learning courses that generate approximately 4000 students each year. Initial skills training is provided for enlisted and staff in public health disciplines and preventive medicine, Bioenvironmental Engineering, aerospace physiology, aeromedical evacuation for registered nurses and medical technicians, aviation and operational maintenance, and critical air transport maintenance (CCATT). Advanced and refresher courses are provided in these same disciplines as well as pre-dissemination critical care refresher training for surgeons, critical care nurses, respiratory therapists, emergency physicians, anesthesiologists, and other primary care providers. The three-year Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited clinical residency in Aerospace Medicine is provided to Doctors. And a six-month alliance in Aerospace Medicine for International Officers is conducted annually. USAFSAM is host to the world's largest aeromedical library - Franzello Aeromedical Library. In 2010, 65 students from 46 countries attended a course at USAFSAM.

• Classroom Over 500,000 square feet of classrooms and labs

• Centrifuge USAFSAM provides early and refreshing acceleration training for all USAF fast jet pilots in human-centrifuge centrifuges. The centrifuge exposes the subject to 9Gs (g-forces), or 9 times the normal gravitational force, to teach the effects of G-forces on human physiology and to gauge the subject's ability to counteract effects and prevent G-induced loss. consciousness (G-LOC). When USAFSAM moved to Wright-Patterson AFB in 2011, the new centrifugal construction at Wright-Patterson AFB was incomplete. USAFSAM continues to use a centrifuge located at Brooks Town Base in San Antonio, Texas while awaiting completion of a new centrifuge development at Wright Patterson AFB. When completed, the USAFSAM centrifuge at Wright-Patterson AFB will be the only centrifuge rated in the Department of Defense and will provide accelerated training for all USAF jet pilots.

• Height Training Room USAFSAM operates two high-altitude training rooms to provide initial hypoxia training for all flight surgeons, flight nurses, aerospace physiologists, aeromedical evacuation technicians and aerospace physiology technicians. Refresher training is also provided to train aircrew in the area.

• Reduce Respiratory Rescue Devices (ROBD) ROBD is a device that mixes respiratory air with nitrogen to produce atmospheric oxygen levels equivalent to sea level for higher altitudes. The USAFSAM ROBD provides hypocrisy training for aircrew, similar to that provided in altitude chambers, with no decreased pressure and elevation exposure risk.

• Aircraft Simulator USAFSAM uses C-17, T-767, and four C-130 aircraft to provide a realistic and realistic learning environment.

• Aeromed Aeronautical Laboratory The Department of Aerospace Medicine operates the Aeromedical Aeromedical Laboratory to support the Basic Aerospace Medicine Course and Residency in Aerospace Medicine (RAM). The Aviation Laboratory is located at Greene County Airport with civil aviation instructors who are all previous USAF pilots. Students receive training at Cirrus SR-22 and Pitts S2B planes. Students complete aeromedical and ground-based training and then receive seven flights following a didactic curriculum. About 500-600 students are trained at Aviation Aerospace Laboratory every year.

• The Air Force Center for Expeditionary Team Training Basic Expeditionary Medical Preparedness Training is provided for medical personnel prior to military deployment through the Trauma Skills Training Center (C-STARS) provided on site at a medical facility partners in Baltimore, Maryland; Cincinnati, Ohio; and St. Louis, Missouri.

Consultation

USAFSAM Aeromedical Research Department conducts research in four key areas:

En Route Care The En Route Care research team led 711 HPW research and consultations in aeromedical evacuation and expedition treatment, to include stable trauma battle patients for critical transport and travel. and routine care for the injured during strategic evacuation. An outpatient research team oversees research at three C-STARS sites. Research undertaken in this area addresses the requirements including all elements of patient care and support functions during patient staging and transportation, starting with acceptance of initial requests for patient/victim movements until patient/victim movement is no longer required. These include research relevant to: En Route Patient Staging System (ERPSS), aeromedical evacuation (AE), CCATT, and Tactical Critical Care Evacuation Teams (TCCET).

Forced Health Protection The Force USAFSAM Health Protection Study addresses the need for timely, accurate, and actionable health risk characterization for aviation-related health hazards and for physical, chemical, biology, radiology, directed energy and other environmental threats. The study also identifies the causes and appropriate treatment for newly identified and rapidly developing diseases, as well as the development of enhanced genetic/genomic abilities to predict human and microbial susceptibility.

Human Performance The USAFSAM Human Performance Research Team leads 711 HPW aeromedical research and advisory in optimizing and maintaining the physical and mental health and performance of Airmen. The team conducts research in altitude and acceleration, operational psychology, visionary standards, and aircrew/operator performance. Human Performance Research personnel oversee research activities on DoD centrifuges only and in unique research altitude study facilities, as well as Operational Based Assessment Labs (OBVA).

Expeditionary Medicine The USAFSAM Expeditionary Medicine Research Team is leading the research and consulting of 711 HPW in supporting the health and performance of patients and providers across the harsh environmental spectrum.

Maps United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine

History

The New York Chapter

The United States Air Force Aerospace Medicine School began operations on 19 January 1918 in Hazelhurst Field, Mineola, Long Island as the Air Services Medical Research Laboratory under Col. William H. Wilmer. The Hazelhurst lab has a small decompression chamber and research begins at human tolerance to lower the oxygen tension. The origin for the creation of a laboratory was the entry of the United States into World War I on 6 April 1917 and resulted in increased use of aircraft by military forces. As a result, on April 28, 1917, a Medical Air Service, Signal Corps, US Army was held with General Theodore C. Lyster, Medical Corps, US Army, designated for the newly created position > Chief Surgeon, Flight Section, Corps of Signals on September 6, 1917. One of the first observations made by General Lyster was the alarming death rate from a plane crash between flying cadets in a US training center and with the Allies in France. In the first year of flying in World War I, Britain and France found that 2% of plane crashes were due to combat, 8% caused by mechanical problems, and 90% caused by human failure.

The interest in reversing this trend led to the creation of an Aviation Medical Research Agency consisting of 4 officers of the Army Medical Corps for:

• Investigate all conditions that will affect pilot efficiency
• Develop and experiment to determine the ability to fly at high altitudes
• Develop and experiment on methods for sending oxygen to pilots in the highlands
• Act as a standing medical council for all things related to pilot fitness

The first action of the Aviation Medical Research Agency was to direct the construction of the Air Services Medical Research Laboratory at Hazelhurst Field on Long Island.

The term Flight Surgeon was adopted by the Hazelhurst Laboratory on March 11, 1918 to identify doctors who devoted themselves to the health and well-being of the leaflets. And just 2 months later the first 3 students graduate as Flight Surgeons and are ordered to the field for duty. Capt. Robert J. Hunter arrived at his first station on May 8, 1918 and was considered the first flight surgeon. Major William R. Ream was the first Aviation Surgeon to be killed while on duty in a flight accident on August 23, 1918.

In early August 1918, General John J. Pershing identified the need for medical assistance in France. There are about 3,000 American leaflets in France and plane crashes account for 74.6% of deaths among pilots, with only 24.8% due to combat and only 0.6% for illness. In response, the Air Service Research Laboratory mobilized 34 officers and 13 enlisted men to Issoudun, France. There they found the physical and mental health of the pilots in bad condition. Teams from the Research Laboratory used lessons learned from their work in the laboratory and in October 1918 there was a marked increase in health and morale among aircrew and a decrease in aircraft crash rates.

After the removal of the Laboratory after the Armistice, most of the laboratory staff were moved or returned to civilian life and in January 1919, Major Louis H. Bauer succeeded Colonel Wilmer as Laboratory Director under the new name, The Medical Research Laboratory and School for Surgeons Flights and in a new location on Mitchel Field, Long Island. Major Bauer assigned a permanent instruction course for the first and second-class regular flight surgeon from 2 months duration beginning in May 1919.

In February 1921, the War Department acknowledged the School for Aviation Surgeons as a Specialized Service School that provided the same status as the Medical Research Laboratory. And on November 8, 1922, the Airborne Medical Research Laboratory and School for Flight Surgeons was designated as the Faculty of Aviation Medicine.

The first Texas section

Major Francis H. Poole succeeded Major Bauer as Commander of the Aviation Medical School in 1925. And in August 1926, the School was moved to Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas. Only 5 years later moved across town to Randolph Field in October 1931.

In 1934 it was recognized that there was an overlap in research topics between the Aviation Medical School and the Physiological Research Unit, Materials Division, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. A focus division was agreed between two research units with the Material Division responsible for the development of the equipment, and the School focused on personnel factors related to the selection, classification, and maintenance of the flyer.

With the start of the war in Europe, the United States began to mobilize its troops in 1940 which resulted in the expansion of personnel and funding for the School. On January 20, 1942, a Research Department was formally established by the School Commander Brigade. Gen Eugen G. Reinartz MC with Major. Harry G. Armstrong MC as Director. Included in this new research department are branches for physiology, psychology, psychiatry, biochemistry, biophysics, pharmacology, ophthalmology, clinical investigation, otolaryngology, pathology, statistics, physical education and dentistry. The new Aeromedical Library was established to support this research effort. The new research building at Randolph Field officially opened on April 2, 1943.

In January 1943, the Airborne Airborne Corps Airborne Corps School was transferred to the Aviation Medical School from Bowman Field, Kentucky connecting flight nurse training with aeromedical education and research.

After the war Colonel Harry G. Armstrong took over as Commander of the School on July 18, 1946. He had previously established and served as Director of the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright Field from 1935 to 1940, and later as Director of the Research Department at the School of Aviation Medicine (1941-1942) before serving as Air Division Surgeon at the Office of the Military Government for Germany in Berlin (1942-1946).

On April 1, 1946, the School was transferred from the Air Training Command to the Air University Command and became the medical department graduate of the Air University, Air Force education and doctrinal center.

In August 1946, Colonel (Major General) Armstrong formally proposed the establishment of the Aeromedical Center to provide teaching, research, and clinical practice of aerospace drugs. On June 21, 1949, the Aeromedical Planning Board was commissioned by the Surgeon General to devise a plan for the Aeromedical Center. The findings and recommendations of the Board were released in September 1949 as an Aeromedical Planning Board Report on the Aeromedical Center and are the basis for the School complex that was built later at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas.

The Texas and Alabama Chapter

In 1950, the School had exceeded its space at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas so part of the educational activities were temporarily deployed at Gunter Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama. The headquarters for the School remains at Randolph Air Force Base along with the Department of Research and Main Course and Advanced in Aviation Medicine, while the Aviation Nurse Course, Physiological Officers Training Course, and all enlisted courses are transferred to School Group 3882, Gunter School of Flight Branch.

In March 1950 the Radiobiology Laboratory was established in Austin, Texas as a joint venture between USAFSAM and the University of Texas which looked at the effects of ionizing radiation on living organisms and the prevention and treatment of radiation injuries. They are working closely with the Atomic Energy Commission in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and their work is making significant progress in knowledge important to this new field of study.

In July 1952, Public Law 534 was passed by the 82nd Congress which authorized $ 8,000,000 for the construction of a Aeromedis Center facility for the Aviation Medical School at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.

On 24 October 1952, the School's mission expanded from education and research to include consultations with the establishment of Aeromedical Consulting Services.

Another milestone was achieved on February 8, 1953 when the American Board of Preventive Medicine was authorized by the American Medical Association to manufacture aviation drugs as a specialization in the field of preventive medicine and to provide special aviation certification in aviation medicine.

On May 10, 1957, the first stone laying ceremony was held for the construction of the New Medical School Aviation at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.

The study of space drugs began in School in 1947 conducted by Dr. Hubertus Strughold, who was Director of the Aeromedical Research Institute in Berlin from 1935 to 1945. Heinz Haber, an Astrophysicist. Their work matured leading to the creation of the Department of Space Medicine within the School on February 9, 1949. In November 1951 USAFSAM, in collaboration with the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research in Albuquerque, New Mexico, jointly organized and sponsored the International Symposium on Physics and Upper Atmosphere Medicine. The meeting was held in San Antonio Texas and the results of the symposium were published in a book titled Physics and Top Atmosphere Medicine with 21 chapters of 34 collaborating scientists.

In October 1954, USAFSAM received a sealed cabin simulator delivery for space research. The simulator modeled the inside of the space vehicle and was built to study humans in a closed ecological system at a simulated altitude of 80,000 feet up. The experiment was conducted at the beginning of the January 1956 simulator leading to the remaining Airman Donald F. Farrell flanked on simulators for 7 consecutive days in February 1958. After the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the US pursued a civil and military manned space program with USAF tasked with military effort. In July 1958, the USAFSAM Space Medicine Department was reorganized as the Division of Outer Space Medicine with 4 Departments. Colonel Paul A. Campbell was the first Division Head of the Space Medicine Division.

The USAF focuses on plans for the military space station, Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). MOL is designed to be a space station orbiting the earth and will use a modified Gemini capsule attached to a cylindrical lab. The MOL mission is planned for up to 30 days. MOL has never launched a space mission, but USAFSAM's MOL study of humans in space for a long time in preparation for the MOL mission was used by NASA in Skylab operations. And much of the work in the food chamber, radiation studies, atmospheric cabin space, and pressure settings was adopted by NASA during the Gemini and Apollo missions. The MOL program was canceled in 1969 to reduce defense spending. Both the military and civilian manned space programs resulted in a large expansion of research facilities and capabilities at the Brooks Aeromedis Center:

• A hospital ward for sleep rest learn to simulate the effects of microgravity. The protective measures used during the space shuttle era evolved directly from 20 years of joint study by NASA and USAFSAM on elevated decompression diseases.
• Human centrifuges to study rapid onset acceleration for fighter pilots and for launch and re-entry of astronauts. Beginning in 1991 all astronauts trained for exposure G in USAFSAM.
• Multiple-height altitudes include a one-man space capable of rapid decompression to test the downgraded pressure settings.
• Laboratory to study body fluids and food and nutrients for space flight.
• Simulator Manned Orbiting Laboratory. There were 90 MOL related research projects undertaken at Brooks prior to the cancellation of the program in 1969. Information obtained from these experiments contributed to the Apollo program and some of the equipment produced from the MOL study were then flown on Skylab during 1973 and 1974. li>

Second Texas section

The first Basic Course in Aviation Medicine was held at the new campus at Brooks AFB August 11, 1959.

On August 8, 1961, the School's name was changed to The School of Aerospace Medicine .

On November 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy dedicated a new school complex at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas the day before he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. This is Kennedy's last official act as president and the location of his famous speech over a wall that invites the country to embrace space exploration.

Frank O'Connor, the Irish writer, tells in one of his books how, as a boy, he and his friends will walk across the countryside, and when they arrive in an orchard that looks too tall and too skeptical to try. and it was too difficult to let their voyage continue, they took off their hats and threw them on the wall - and then they had no choice but to follow them. This nation has thrown a hat into the wall of space, and we have no choice but to follow it. Whatever the difficulties, they will be overcome. Whatever the danger, they must be guarded. With the vital help of this Aerospace Medical Center, with the help of everyone working in space, with the help and support of all Americans, we will climb this wall safely and with speed - and then we will explore the magic on the other side.

In 1996, a new school at Brooks Air Force Base was completed (775).

The Chapter Ohio

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