Air Force medical leaders, AFMEDCOM leadership synchronize medical readiness efforts

Story by Maristela Romero

Air Force Medical Service

Part two of a five-part series covering the Air Force Surgeon General’s annual Senior Leadership Workshop. The 2024 theme is: “The Air Force Medical Service at 75 … Mission Ready, Operationally Relevant!”

Air Force medical leaders held discussions sessions on generating a medically ready force and healthcare operations under the new organizational framework of the Air Force Medical Command during day two of the Air Force Medical Service’s annual Senior Leadership Workshop, Dec. 4, 2024.

The day’s theme focused on efforts the Department of Air Force is taking to better prepare medical Airmen to support Airmen and Guardians for operations in a complex, contested environment during the era of Great Power Competition. Marked by a new security environment with emerging threats, senior leaders focused on four key areas to advance a medically ready force: developing people and capabilities, generating readiness, and projecting power.

Central to these strategies is the DAF’s efforts to establish AFMEDCOM, which is designed to streamline health care operations, improve medical readiness, and ensure that Airmen and Guardians are adaptive, resilient, and agile for operational missions worldwide.

U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Jason J. Lennen, director of policy and resources for the Office of the Air Force Surgeon General, and Chief Master Sgt. Erik Robbins, AFMEDCOM senior enlisted leader, opened the day by reinforcing the need to change and describing AFMEDCOM’s approach to improving medical readiness.

“Readiness requires change and change requires a growth mindset,” Lennen said. “When we approach change, we should see it as an opportunity and a necessity to accelerate our mission goals.”

Victor Warnsley, senior technical advisor for the Air Force Medical Service manpower, personnel and resources programming office, discussed the importance of identifying and aligning Air Force Specialty Code educational requirements and training to support the operational needs outlined in the current unit manpower document, which ensure proper resource allocation for medical readiness.

Additionally, U.S. Air Force Col. Christian Lyons, Air Force Personnel Center chief of human resourcing and military medical career management, and U.S. Air Force Col. James Knowles, chief, medical recruitment and sustainment division, discussed Air Force Medical Service staffing prioritization. They acknowledged that each major command and installation will require tailored support from senior leaders and careful consideration in manpower allocation.

“The purpose of identifying staffing priorities is to align limited resources with mission priorities and improve communication about meeting major command and installation needs,” Lyons said.

Lt. Gen. John J. DeGoes, U.S. Air Force and Space Force Surgeon General, and Chief Master Sgt. James Woods, Medical Enlisted Force and Enlisted Corps Chief, provided closing remarks and concluded with a Q&A session, which focused on concerns regarding support for individual installations, impacts on medical Airmen, and efforts to balance medical readiness and health care delivery requirements.

As senior leaders asked questions about AFMEDCOM’s role in providing solutions for installations, Maj. Gen. Thomas. W. Harrell, MRC-Alpha commander, encouraged them to communicate the driving policies to installation leadership and their medical staff to foster an environment of transparency, accountability and collaboration, and seek support from AFMEDCOM leadership for further support when needed.

“The primary job of leaders at installations is to support the mission of the installation and collaborate with other decisionmakers to problem solve and address resource constraints,” Harrell said. “Your senior leaders will get rid of the barriers to executing those solutions. My goal going forward is to get us aligned so that the message about our priorities is standardized from this room to the clinics and across the Air Force.”

During a breakout session that concluded day two, Maj. Gen. Harrell and Maj. Gen. Jeannine M. Ryder, MRC-Bravo commander, facilitated discussions on strategies to advance medical readiness capabilities under the new command structure. These served as critical touchpoints for the intermediate management commands to synchronize operational goals and clarify their approach to executing the surgeon general’s priorities with leaders across the AFMS down to the installation, especially throughout the AFMEDCOM transition.

“My hope is that senior leaders will recognize their teammates, and in knowing the people, they will have transparent communication and find a collaborative environment for assessing risks and finding solutions together,” Ryder said.

Harrell reinforced the necessity of reaching a common understanding of how the reorganization will prepare medical Airmen to support operations in a complex, contested environment while supporting the DAF’s efforts to prepare for operations in an era of Great Power Competition. He empowered medical group leaders and staff to become adaptable to these changes for maintaining safe, quality care and readiness for the future fight.

“Times have changed from the unipolar world of decades ago,” he said. “In the past, we have always moved forward with changing attributes that needed to change so the Air Force can maintain superiority. Peer competition is on the horizon, so we must realign once again to meet these new challenges.”