justinsterett9Jan 5, 20217 minFirst HH-60 Pave Hawk FlightFlying is an essential task for a flight surgeon. The initial appeal of being a flight surgeon for many of us is the coolness factor with...
justinsterett9Sep 24, 20168 minThe Mighty EagleSince moving to southern Oregon I’ve been taunted by the constant roar of fighter jets buzzing the skies. One of my main motivations for...
justinsterett9Nov 8, 20135 minContractor ConundrumThe most terrifying thing possible for a young physician is to be alone in the middle of Africa with an overweight, hypertensive,...
justinsterett9May 1, 20136 minAfghanistan CASEVACThe day, or I should say night in a mid November of 2011 started like any other night in the plywood palace that was our clinic in...
justinsterett9Jan 6, 20134 minIndirect FireOne of the ultimate hypocrisies I’ve noticed in the military is the obsession with preaching safety when at home. Driving 15mph on base,...
justinsterett9Aug 5, 20123 minGolden MortarsThe first time I heard the loud speaker shout out “INCOMING INCOMING” I nearly fell off the couch in the clinic where at least I thought...
justinsterett9Jul 12, 20124 minAfghanistan Clinical OpsSo after five months in Afghanistan I have a couple stories to tell. I should mention that since some of the people I work with have...
justinsterett9Jun 2, 20124 minDoing the DeidAl Udeid air base is a small military staging area in Qatar right in the middle of the Persian gulf. For the most part it functions as...
justinsterett9Oct 29, 20112 minDepartureLeaving for a conventional military deployment has come a long ways since the days of GIs stepping out to a rusty old plane hell bound to...
justinsterett9Apr 3, 20116 minCASEVAC Course Placing a blood pressure cuff on a patient is typically a simple task. This time was an exception. I felt for the cuff in my bag, pulled...
justinsterett9Jan 28, 20114 minAn Average Night at Baltimore Shock Trauma As the cold front settles in on Baltimore, the snow begins to fall, and the roads begin to freeze. On this chilly Friday night,...
justinsterett9Jan 27, 20112 minShock Trauma TortureIt’s incredibly difficult to be a good surgical resident when it’s the exact opposite of anything I self identify with. Working in the...
justinsterett9Jan 26, 20113 minCSTARS: First Overnight CallThe Trauma Resuscitation Unit, or “TRU,” as it’s known, is probably the number one place you don’t want to find yourself after a night of...
justinsterett9Jan 13, 20114 minCSTARS Pre-Deployment Training CSTARS “Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills” is essentially the military’s solution to get Docs, nurses, and medics...
justinsterett9Nov 21, 201010 minSERE SchoolSERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. Each branch of the military has a school that teaches the fundamentals of...
justinsterett9Sep 30, 20105 minUnderwater Helicopter Egress My first survival school course at Fairchild AFB in Spokane was a one-day course known as “Dunker” training, or underwater helicopter...
justinsterett9Sep 30, 20102 minPipeline TrainingFor the next several months I’m being submerged into a training pipeline that is designed to get me spun up to the point of being a fully...
justinsterett9Aug 17, 20105 minFlight Surgeon TrainingFor the next several months I’ll be engaging in various training programs with the idea of getting me “spun up” to be a fully functional...