Nineteen airmen from Air Force Reserve Command’s 433rd Medical Group at Lackland AFB, Tex., treated 2,373 patients over a six-day period early this month in the Ayacucho region of Peru. They were part of New Horizons-Peru 2008, a three-month US Southern Command-sponsored joint humanitarian assistance initiative. The team provided general medical care and diagnosis, dentistry, optometry, pharmaceutical needs, and public health education. The 433rd MDG is one of several Air Force medical units participating in New Horizons. The others include: AFRC’s 452nd MDG from March ARB, Calif.; 349th MDG from Travis AFB, Calif.; and 459th Aerospace Medicine Squadron from Andrews AFB, Md. (Includes Ayacucho report by Capt. David Tomiyama)
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.