LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
Front Line Warrior: Staff Sgt. Magen Harger
Deployed Unit: 376th Expeditionary Medical Group, Transit Center Manas, Kyrgyzstan
Duty Title: Chief of Laboratory Medicine
Home Unit: 633d Medical Support Squadron Medical Laboratory
Hometown: Sand Springs, Okla.
Time in Service: Active-duty Air Force four years
Describe your deployed duty and the tools you use to accomplish it: I am the sole Medical Laboratory technician for the Transit Center at Manas medical facility. I am responsible for all patient testing as well as maintaining our blood supply. The training I received at my home station in particular my Blood Bank training has been vital to my success at my deployed location.
What do you bring to the fight? I provide accurate and timely test results so that our doctors can properly treat their patients and return them to duty as soon as possible. I am also in charge of the blood donor registration program at Manas which ensures we can respond to a mass casualty event.
What are you overall thoughts and opinions about your mission there? I think our mission is vital to the movement of troops and supplies down range in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as well as enabling the transportation of troops back to the United States after deployment.
Supervisor Comments: Sergeant Harger is the consummate team player. From helping medical logistics process supplies or recertifying Individual First Aid Kits to assisting the medical technicians with patient check-ins, you can always count on her to support the mission and provide high quality care to the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen who come through our doors. Her efforts have a direct impact on Operation Enduring Freedom every day.
Sergeant Harger ensures the health of more than 2,500 Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines who travel through the Transit Center daily on their way to and from Afghanistan. Being the lone laboratory tech, she has to be available 24 hours a day, often called in sacrificing hours of sleep. I am confident the future of our Air Force is in good hands due to NCOs like her.