Photo By Stephenie Wade | Staff Sgt. Tara Richardson, 455th Expeditionary Medical Group public health...... read more read more
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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - An aircraft depends on fuel and maintenance just as people depend on food and exercise. Two public health technicians assigned to the 455th Expeditionary Medical Group ensure facilities on Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, are environmentally safe for more than 10,000 U.S. and coalition service members they are responsible for.
“Our mission is to prevent disease, disability and premature death,” said Staff Sgt. Tara Richardson, deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas and a native of Dallas. “It’s been eye opening to see the impact [public health] has here. I am directly affecting the safety of our troops here.”
Every month Richardson and Staff Sgt. Jesse Kot are in charge of inspecting five dining facilities and two gyms here.
“When I inspect a facility I look for the overall sanitation of the workers and facility and security make sure all the doors that are supposed to lock are locked,” she said.
For example, there are food coolers outside the dining facilities that hold perishable goods. If those doors don’t lock, people would have access to possibly harm service member’s food.
Kot, deployed from Dover Air Force Base, De, said, “If someone gets sick, the flight has to investigate how the patient got sick, where the patient last ate and what the patient ate. One of the primary sources of food illness is from members not washing hands properly. Good hand washing goes a long way.”
| Date Taken: | 10.06.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 10.07.2013 02:09 |
| Story ID: | 114831 |
| Location: | BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF |
| Hometown: | DALLAS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 148 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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