JOINT BASE LANGLEY EUSTIS, Va. –
The U.S. Air Force Medical Service is celebrating its Biomedical Science Corps' 50th Anniversary Jan. 26-30, 2015. Under the motto 'United in Mission,' the week celebrates and honors the men and women within the corps, their achievements and history.
The BSC was enacted Jan. 28, 1965, when Special Order CA-5 was signed by General Curtis E. Lemay. Today more than 2,400 medical scientists, public health specialists, physician assistants and health specialists along with 5,800 enlisted support members make up the corps.
At Joint Base Langley Eustis' 633rd Medical Group, 43 BSC officers impact the health and well-being of JBLE members, their families and retirees by providing care through various specialties and subspecialties including a variety of health quality controllers, surveyors, and specialists as well as scientists and physician assistants.
"We're a diverse group of people that support the Air Force mission in different ways either with hands-on patient care or health surveillance activities," said Lt. Col. Jan Allen, 633rd BSC executive officer. "Because of their varied functions and capabilities, the [BSCs] impact the lives of every beneficiary within the medical group."
With more than 43 BSCs working here, it can be difficult to communicate and understand various aspects of what each specialty does, said Allen of why it's important to recognize how BSCs contribute to the mission.
Allen said that while the BSC is an officer corps, a diverse enlisted corps ensures BSCs can function.
"Public health can't [function] without enlisted [Airmen] and physical therapy can't do their job without them either," said Allen. "It's important for me to make sure that people understand our missions are both enlisted and officer missions."
This year at JBLE, BSCs and their enlisted counterparts also played a major role in the Ebola Virus Disease prevention by setting up the first U.S. based controlled monitoring site within one week of the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff's mandate. They also set precedence for future sites with their monitoring plan, patient care, food safety and hygiene protocols for the site, said Allen.
Like the monitoring site, the medical service specializes in preventative medical support in deployed environments, she said.
"We're supporting not only the medics, but we're supporting the [base]," she said. "We're doing water surveillance ... physical therapists are fixing sprained ankles to make sure people get back in the field and pharmacists are making sure you get all the medication you need."
For Allen, this week is a time to recognize how her team's varied functions and capabilities impact the lives of base members.
"There are a lot of things we do as BSCs that enable the mission," said Allen. "We're not just doing patient care; there are a lot of things that we do for our base as a whole not just as officers, but as officers and enlisted working together."
(The Article was created Using information from the BSC 50th Anniversary Public Affairs Plan)