AFSOC Surgeon General visits 352nd SOG medical team

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Marelise Wood
  • 352nd Special Operations Group Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  The 352nd Special Operations Group medical team received a visit Aug. 30 from the Air Force Special Operations Command Surgeon General as a part of an Air Force Special Operations Command medical unit review.

Brig. Gen. Bart Iddins visited the command's medical communities to brief continuing changes to the way they conduct business.

General Iddins shared his thoughts during a meeting with the 352nd SOG medics.

"The reason why the chief (Chief Master Sergeant James Scott, AFSOC Chief, Medical Enlisted Force) and I are doing an around-the-world visit to all the medical units is to ensure all AFSOC operational medical personnel are on the same sheet of music and to give you a progress report on AFSOC medical programs, to include where we are now and where we are moving to in the future," said the general.

Two of the key areas he focused on were the training pipeline for medical personnel entering the SOF community and the reorganization of the deployment structure of the command's two special operations medical groups.

"General Iddins discussed the new Air Force Special Operations Command medical teams based out of the special operations medical group at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., giving the 352nd Special Operations Group access to additional medical capabilities when we need them," said a captain from the 352nd Special Operations Support Squadron. "He also focused on the growing emphasis on Medical Stability Operations as part of an integrated Irregular Warfare effort and the new training pipeline for AFSOC medics to make them truly interoperable with the Army and Navy Special Forces medics."

General Iddins also shared his view on acquiring needed certifications to further enable interoperability between the forces.

The Advanced Tactical Practitioner is recognized by all services as one such certification.

"Basically, the Advanced Tactical Practitioner card says the cardholder is interoperable with other US Special Operations Command medical assets," said General Iddins. "Since we are a component of US Special Operations Command, AFSOC's medical force must be fully interoperable with SOF medics from other service components."

To create a baseline for personnel entering the command's medical force, the training pipeline was created. It covers three phases of training: Phase I is an Introduction to SOF; Phase II is an Introduction to SOF medicine; and Phase III addresses Medical / Tactical Field Skills.

"All new medics coming into units like ours are going to have to go through this training pipeline in the future," said the captain. "We're also trying to have our current medics get into this training."

General Iddins ended by meeting with 352nd SOG leadership before continuing to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany where the 352nd SOG has a specialized medical detachment.