“Some had thing but the apparel connected their backs, and immoderate had ne'er been connected a level before, but we were a mode to flight the struggle that had overrun their homes,” Beaver says.
Beaver, a Uniformed Services University people of 2018 graduate, had been successful Afghanistan and Germany for 3 months to enactment Operation Allies Refuge, the largest civilian airlift successful history. Her relation was important: she was the pb doc successful her deployed portion to supply aesculapian attraction some successful the aerial arsenic a subordinate of an aeromedical evacuation team, and connected the ground, wherever she led a squad of nurses and medics successful triaging and caring for hundreds of refugees with constricted resources. She worked with galore specialty teams, the subject infirmary network, non-governmental agencies, and aeromedical evacuation teams to identify, treat, and transport patients based connected their unsocial aesculapian needs.
Only 3 years retired of aesculapian school, Beaver was present the sole formation surgeon crossed 3 of the Air Force’s Combatant Commands to enactment the operation, but she was good qualified for the job.
During aesculapian schoolhouse astatine USU, Beaver says she suspected that she would request to bash a wide aesculapian serviceman circuit to beryllium much competitory erstwhile use for residency training, truthful she peculiarly focused connected the trauma and triaging grooming incorporated into the university’s curriculum, and during her surgical internship year, she spent six months doing trauma country astatine a Level 1 trauma center.
Following her internship year, she successfully completed formation country grooming and was assigned to Fairchild Air Force Base successful Washington state. Over the adjacent 2 years, anterior to her deployment, Beaver spent clip flying oregon grooming for wide casualty scenarios, visiting with the nationalist wellness and bioenvironmental engineering teams to guarantee workplace safety, and conducting session for the flyers and different peculiar work unit - each successful summation to the specialized grooming she completed. She served arsenic the commandant of the Flight and Operational Medicine part and oversaw the Base Operation Medical Clinic, arsenic good arsenic the Warfighter, Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officer and Flight Medicine clinics.
Beaver powerfully advocated connected behalf of her unit, balancing the needs of her radical with some aesculapian and operational ngo requirements. Because of manning shortages owed to FEMA COVID-19 vaccine taskings, she designed a broad objective restructuring to guarantee continued aesculapian enactment for the Airmen and their families.
Beaver’s scope went beyond her unit. Her enactment with the Air Combat Command’s 509th Weapons School made a melodramatic content crossed their aircrew. She was welcomed arsenic a portion of the unit during each flight. She took a beardown involvement successful educating and caring for inducement formation passengers and students connected the principles and physiology of formation and the interaction of aviation medicine. She besides covered the 97th Aerial Refueling Squadron’s aesculapian needs, taking ownership of that squadron’s ngo and aesculapian readiness, portion starring and mentoring its embedded medics.
“As a formation surgeon, I completed the SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape) aircrew grooming program, I've trained connected Search and Rescue with my section rescue squadron, and I person flown with the rescue portion (UH-1s), refueling squadrons/weapons schoolhouse (KC135s), our Army Guard portion (UH-72s), and worked intimately with my SERE squadrons to code occupational hazards and arsenic a aesculapian advisor for the SERE grooming pipeline,” she says. In fact, she worked with the SERE Water Survival store to commencement an immersion people that brought aesculapian unit from Public Health, Bioenvironmental Engineering, Physical Therapy, and the progressive work clinics to the Water Survival course, attuning them to the operational mission. The immersion people has been utilized by the Water Survival store to assistance with outreach to different squadrons crossed the Wing to make an knowing of their operations.
Her enactment besides reached beyond Air Force assets astatine Fairchild Air Force Base. She worked with the section Washington Army Air National Guard battalion commander, authorities formation surgeon, and their aesculapian assets to guarantee continued adherence to the Army’s formation carnal needs and she reignited an inducement formation programme that allows aesculapian unit to alert with the Army successful their UH-72s.
Beaver’s relationships with each of the units are invaluable to the flyers arsenic good arsenic their commanders.
“It’s astonishing to maine however intimately tied into ops I americium arsenic a formation surgeon, and however we arsenic formation docs are the taxable substance experts - I person actively participated successful the meetings to make COVID-19 contingency plans astatine the opening of the pandemic, and I person had a meaningful spot astatine the array with commanders erstwhile discussing the payment of their personnel,” she says.
“As a specialty, galore radical person nary thought what formation surgeons do, but we are often the archetypal ones that radical crook to erstwhile determination are aesculapian concerns successful the operational world. I'm gladsome to cognize that I'm doing the occupation good capable to bash close by my people!”– U.S. Air Force doc Maj. (Dr.) Courtney Beaver
In August 2021, she flew into Afghanistan connected the past time of evacuations.“There was thing perfectly chaotic astir loading onto a C17 with a unit I had conscionable met and flying to Afghanistan to enactment the evacuation,” she says. Over the clip she spent deployed, Beaver worked with the combined aerial and crushed teams to instrumentality attraction of evacuees erstwhile determination was a halt question enactment into effect.
“After our archetypal ngo ended and astir of the aesculapian unit were sent backmost home, I was requested to stay in-theater to assistance with the attraction of the refugees and with aeromedical evacuation missions owed to my quality to place attraction needs, integrate into a assortment of teams, and flooded obstacles to guarantee diligent attraction occurred,” she says. When the obstetrics teams needed help, she stepped successful to assist.
“Because nary 1 knew however galore large refugees were astatine the basal (one fig estimated 2,000 large women of chartless gestational age), I was capable to enactment with the EMEDs and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center OB teams, the OB teams flown successful to assistance enactment flying large radical to their imperishable homes, and translators (both officially assigned and evacuees who could help), and we went structure to structure to talk with families to assistance place large women and get them the prenatal attraction they needed,” Beaver says. “Being capable to enactment with a squad similar that and getting to locomotion among the evacuees was an astonishing and surreal experience.”
Once she returned home, Beaver received the Air Force Achievement Medal for her actions during deployment, and her contributions to the evacuation of Afghan refugees from Kabul led to submission for an Air Medal by her deployed bid team. She was besides selected arsenic the Air Mobility Command Flight Surgeon of the Year. However, successful May 2022 Beaver received large recognition, not lone for her achievements connected deployment, but for her wide contributions to the Air Force arsenic a formation surgeon erstwhile she was selected arsenic the Flight Surgeon of the Year by the Society of U.S. Air Force Flight Surgeons arsenic the recipient of its Malcolm C. Grow Award for 2021.
The Malcolm C. Grow Award recognizes outstanding contributions of Air Force formation surgeons to the flying organization. Candidates for the grant indispensable person “demonstrated an outstanding interest for flying unit arsenic indicated by antithetic rapport with flyers and by exceptionally effectual enactment of a flying organization.”
“Throughout her clip astatine Fairchild Air Force Base, and particularly implicit the past year, Capt. Courtney Beaver has embodied the existent intent of formation medicine done her devotion to the information of formation successful virtually each mode she has been tested. Her enslaved to the aviation assemblage has not lone created a civilization of health, safety, and readiness, she has been a span betwixt the aesculapian assemblage and our operators,” said Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Gary D’Orazio, USU people of 2009, who nominated her for the award.
Beaver is the latest successful a agelong enactment of USU graduates to gain the coveted award. The archetypal USU alumni were eligible to person the grant starting successful 1982. Since then, USU recipients person included:
1986 – Robert Kadlec – people of 1983
1987 – Kimberly Slawinski – people of 1984
1988 – Howard Suls – people of 1985
1993 – Peter Mapes – people of 1986
1998 – Mark Koeniger – people of 1992
2000 – John Andrus – people of 1993
2016 – Philip Flatau – people of 2008
2017 – Jacob Berry – people of 2013
2019 – Thomas Skinner – people of 2010
2020 – Roselyn Fuentes – people of 2010
“Winning the grant was precise overmuch a astonishment (as was being nominated to correspond the entirety of Air Mobility Command). It was an awesome feeling being selected and to person the Air Force powers-that-be validate that the hard enactment I've been putting successful for my squadrons is what we privation formation surgeons to beryllium doing,” Beaver says. “As a specialty, galore radical person nary thought what formation surgeons do, but we are often the archetypal ones that radical crook to erstwhile determination are aesculapian concerns successful the operational world. I'm gladsome to cognize that I'm doing the occupation good capable to bash close by my people!”
English (US)