Since its inception in the summer of 1949, the Air Force
Medical Service (AFMS) has sought to provide its airmen
and their families with first-rate health care and benefits
anywhere and at any time. In support of deployed forces,
the AFMS also plays an essential role in the most effective
joint casualty care system in military history—a system that
has saved thousands of lives that otherwise would have been
lost on the battlefield. “The first thing that we do is work to
both establish and sustain a healthy, fit force, and that has
to do with all parameters of health,” says Lieutenant General
(Dr.) James G. Roudebush, surgeon general, U.S. Air Force
(USAF). General Roudebush manages the AFMS: allocating
resources, developing strategies and programs, and advising
the secretary of the Air Force and senior Department of
Defense leadership on health efforts within the USAF. “[I]
make sure that every Air Force medic can do their job, have
the training, resources, and capabilities they need to do the
job wherever they find it,” declares Roudebush. He does
this with an annual budget of around $7.7 billion, supported
by some 43,000 staff, operating over 70 military treatment
facilities worldwide.