Airmen at Ramstein AB, Germany, hosted a team of doctors from the Bulgarian Military Medical Academy for a week-long orientation of the Air Force’s aeromedical evacuation operations. The agenda “spanned the entire aeromedical evacuation process from ‘A’ to ‘Z,'” said Maj. Daniel Zablotsky, an international health specialist with US Air Forces in Europe. He added, “The Bulgarians are currently at a crucial point in developing their own organic AE capability,” so the visit enabled “valuable information cross-flow” and built “the foundation for future interoperability.” The Bulgarian doctors toured the 86th Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility and observed Ramstein’s CASF team load patients onto a C-17 transport for a flight back to the United States. The Bulgarians also learned how aircraft are configured for aeromedical evacuation. During the mid-December visit, they also toured the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and participated in an AE training flight aboard a C-130J. (Ramstein report by SSgt. Warren Spearman)
A legislative standoff has led to a lapse in a $4.26 billion small business innovation contracting program widely used by the Air Force and could spell the end of it entirely, industry sources warned Air & Space Forces Magazine.
