Air Force medics assigned to the Aerospace School of Medicine conducted training in Krivolak, Macedonia, to hone their skills to respond as an initial contingency response team, or ICRT, worldwide during a crisis or contingency. This medical exercise marked the first time that USAF medics have participated in this type of training, according to the event’s organizers. “We have brought the students out to Krivolak to simulate them forward deploying from Pepelishte, Bulgaria, to respond to a natural disaster,” said Maj. Steven Keifer, an ICRT officer at the school, which is located at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. During the June 10 training, a preventative medicine team, a mobile field surgical team, and an expeditionary critical care team treated patients with mock injuries. (Krivolak report by SSgt. Nadine Barclay)
Gene Smith, Former POW and AFA Chair, Dies at 91
Jan. 19, 2026
Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, who overcame five and a half years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton from 1967 until 1973, died Jan. 16. He was one day short of his 91st birthday.
