Members of the Air Force expeditionary medical support team completed their humanitarian mission in Angol, Chile, on March 26, having built an expeditionary hospital there and helped augment medical care for members of the local community after a powerful earthquake struck Chile on Feb. 27. The 82 airmen of the EMEDS team arrived in Chile on March 10. In less then four days, with the assistance of the Chilean army and US AID, they turned a bare polo field into a fully operational hospital. Together with Chilean medics, USAF medical personnel treated more than 300 patients and performed about 40 surgeries in less than two weeks. On March 24, the field hospital was donated to the local Chilean medical community. It will augment medical care in the region while the main Angol hospital, damaged in the earthquake, is rebuilt. (Angol report by SSgt. Vanessa Young)
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.