Brigadier General Tchoua, The Deputy Director of Military Health Services in Gabon, Africa Visits the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine

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  • By E'Lisa Wilcox
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Brooks City-Base, TX --  Brigadier General Romain Rodrigues Tchoua, the deputy director of military health service, in Gabon, Africa, visited and toured the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks City-Base, TX on Aug. 26. During the visit  General Tchoua,  Master Corporal Ghislaine Ntsame Obame, a Gabonese military nurse, and Yolande Nthongoneth Meye, U.S. Embassy interpreter, received briefings on the wide range of courses offered to international students at USAFSAM.  They also had the opportunity to visit the public health/epidemiology clinical reference laboratory, the expeditionary medical training field site, and the aeromedical evacuation simulator.

The visit, intended to offer insight into how the U.S. military is organized, trained and equipped to provide medical support, provided an opportunity to highlight the many different support functions that USAFSAM makes available to the AF, DoD and nations around the world. The school provides education and training for 6,000 students each year. Its many specialists offer clinical and operational consultation to bases, commanders and other government and international agencies on a variety of health and aerospace medical issues. Many of the faculty and staff are involved with research on cutting edge technologies and medical advancements aimed at saving and enhancing lives.

General Tchoua stated through his interpreter, "The major point that I will take back is the preparation of troops. Training and exercises are the key point of everything. It looks like here they have understood the importance of preparing people. " He went on to say, "Without a strong health unit in the military the Army will not be as efficient as it could be."

In talking about the reasons for the visit, Col. Hadley Reed, chief of the International Training Division of USAFSAM, said, "San Antonio is an area rich with information for any visiting medical dignitary, with BAMC, Wilford Hall, and USAFSAM. In this case, the general is not a flight surgeon, so he is not as interested specifically in Aerospace Medicine as he is in Operational Medicine. Disaster response, war time readiness, the application of public health and epidemiology for national needs, and we (USAFSAM) teach a lot of that material." He went on to say, "The general has demonstrated great interest in a few of the things that we have shown him, in particular the Defense Institute for Medical Operations."

The international training and support that USAFSAM provides is exceptional. DIMO sends teams to upwards of 30 countries each year to provide 1-2 week long medical and emergency training courses for the local military and government units. The school at Brooks also offers medical officers from foreign countries the opportunity to receive specialized Aerospace Medical training as part of the Advanced Aerospace Medicine for International Officers course. This course, which recently graduated its 50th class, has trained many of our allied nation's Surgeon Generals and other top military physicians. Additionally, almost all of the courses that USAFSAM teaches are available to international military students.

"We can have up to 30 international students in various courses here at USAFSAM at any given time, and many courses have some international students in them every year. The most common ones being Aerospace Physiology, Flight Nurse, AAMIMO, Aircraft Mishap Investigation and Prevention, and the Aerospace Medicine Primary course," said Colonel Reed.

The recent establishment of the United States Africa Command has caused USAFSAM to see a growth in interest and activity coming from Africa. AFRICOM is one of the Defense Department's six regional headquarters responsible for U.S. military relations with 53 African countries. Looking forward, Colonel Reed foresees the opportunity to host many students from African countries at the school. The USAFSAM is part of the 711th Human Performance Wing under the Air Force Research Laboratory. USAFSAM is in the process of relocating Wright-Patt as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act. The school will be housed in a state-of-the-art new facility in Area B here in March 2011.