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Madigan’s dual mission: support locally, globally through PROFIS

By: Lorin T. Smith

Madigan Healthcare System Public Affairs Office

Soldiers and Family members posed for a photo during a recent Madigan Army Medical Center Deployment Ceremony. All of the Soldiers received deployment orders through the Professional Filler System, which mobilizes individual active duty Soldiers attached to non-deployable units and directs them to fill a unit activated to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. Madigan holds a Deployment Ceremony once a quarter to recognize those Soldiers who may be asked to serve in harm’s way. (Photo by Lorin T. Smith)

Capt. Larry Wheat is a general anesthesiologist, a much-needed skill set on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. He is assigned to Madigan Healthcare System, which, as a hospital, does not deploy Soldiers under a single set of Colors. Before the Global War on Terror, Wheat may have spent his entire Fort Lewis tour within the confines of the Military Treatment Facility. But because of the Army Medical Department’s Professional Filler System, he, like 462 other Madigan Soldiers this year, have been ordered to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan under the PROFIS program. PROFIS is only for medical Soldiers, and mostly affects doctors and commissioned nurses. The system designates qualified active Army AMEDD personnel working in non-deployable units like Madigan, and directs them to fill a unit activated to deploy. The tour length is different for every PROFIS Soldier, with most doctors and nurses going overseas for six months to a year. Wheat, for example, deployed to Baghdad with the 28th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Bragg, N.C., two months ago, for a six-month deployment. He said that with him gone, Madigan’s anesthesiology team has four certified registered nurse anesthetists deployed, with six Reservist anesthetists being activated for 90-day rotations to backfill them.

by Steve Pivnick
81st Medical Group Public Affairs
KEESLER AFB, Ms. -- When Senior Master Sgt. Clayton French was honored at his Nov. 20 retirement ceremony, most of the guests in attendance learned the 81st Medical Operations Squadron first sergeant would leave a significant legacy to the service to which he devoted more than 28 years of his life: Sergeant French had written a base newspaper commentary that became the inspiration for "The Airman's Creed."

Senior Master Sgt. Clayton French, Medical Operations Squadron, retires after 28 years. (Courtesy photo)

Recounting Sergeant French's career, Lt. Col. Jane Denton, 81st MDOS commander and presiding officer, told the guests Sergeant French had already completed college and was married when he visited the Air Force recruiter.

"His father had been in the Air Force in the 1950s, so Sergeant French decided to join. He was a few years older than his peers and that maturity garnered him supervisory responsibilities immediately, starting with dorm chief at basic training. He learned his career field assignment while in basic: He was to become an inertial navigation and radar system specialist and his tech school was going to be Keesler.

"From tech training, his first assignment was Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., which became his home for 12 years. Then it was on to Howard AFB, Panama, where he and the family enjoyed seafood and culture. By then he had finished his master's degree in education and decided he wanted to use it to teach. So he put in to be a professional military education instructor at the NCO Academy, again at Keesler AFB. He had only taught two classes before getting his diamond and becoming a first sergeant. This took him into his fifth year here and soon it was time to move on.

A different kind of reunion

By: Julie Calohan

Madigan Healthcare System Public Affairs Office

Newborn graduates from the Madigan Army Medical Center CenteringPregnancy Program shift their attention to Lemonie Swecker, 5 weeks old, who gives a tearful reunion speech. The CenteringPregnancy Program offers pregnant women the option to receive their prenatal care with other women in a group setting. (Photo by Julie Calohan)

The dance floor was replaced with a handmade quilt. Attendees snacked on baby formula instead of the traditional dinner buffet. And there was no DJ — just the gentle sound of a soothing lullaby. This was the scene at the reunion for graduates of the most recent CenteringPregnancy Program at Madigan Healthcare System. The graduates were mothers and newborns who had recently completed the CenteringPregnancy Program, an alternative to traditional prenatal care where pregnant women receive risk assessment, support and education regarding pregnancy in a group setting. Women are placed into groups of eight to 12 based on their predicted due date, and they are encouraged to share and talk to one another about their experiences.“We find that this is an effective model for delivery,” said Roxanne Piecek, a certified nurse midwife with Madigan’s CenteringPregnancy Program. “It provides an advantage to women.”CenteringPregnancy was developed by a midwife in the mid-1990s, and has since spread to more than 100 medical facilities nationwide. Madigan is the second Military Treatment Facility and one of only three medical facilities in the nation to receive an accreditation for CenteringPregnancy. William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss, Texas, also carries an accreditation.