Air Force Reserve Command airmen from six bases spent Valentine’s day weekend boning up on the skills needed for their aeromedical qualification. The annual aeromedical jamboree brings together in one location, this time Charleston AFB, S.C., three different airframes—C-17, C-130, and KC-135— on which the medics need to be qualified. “It’s important to bring us together in a central location where we can get many of our qualifications checked off on the same day,” explained Col. Dom DeFrancis, AFRC command surgeon. He added, “The job these [aeromedical evacuation squadron] crews do every day, around the world is amazing.” For the AES personnel, “there is a lot of adjusting to the different environments each airplane brings,” said Col. Cherie Roberts, commander of the 315th AES at Charleston. (Charleston report by Maj. Bill Walsh)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.