104th Medical Group Airmen Further Their Education, Expertise

WESTFIELD, MA, UNITED STATES

05.22.2019

Story by 1st Class Randall Burlingame

104th Fighter Wing/Public Affairs

Staff Sgt. Kelley McLean, Staff Sgt. Jonathan Duncan, Senior Airman Daniela Rizzari and Senior Airman Ana Decarvalho, 104th Medical Group aerospace medical technicians, recently graduated college with degrees related to the medical career field. 

Duncan graduated from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts with a degree in Biology with a medical focus, Rizzari graduated from Springfield Technical Community College with a Liberal Arts degree with a science focus, Decarvalho graduated from Quinsigamond Community College’s Registered Nurse program, and McLean received her Community College of the Air Force degree in Aerospace Medicine after taking classes at Holyoke Community College. 

The training the four aerospace medical technicians received through the Air National Guard helped prepare them for their studies, and their desire to further their education helps make them more confident and competent with their ANG medical duties. 

“The CCAF for our career field is actually super beneficial when it comes to nursing school on the outside, because we basically get the equivalent of an Licensed Practical Nurse degree,” said McLean. “I already know all of my anatomy and physiology, and all that stuff they are going to test me on. And then here we do all of that all of that time. We draw blood and see people for immunizations. It goes hand in hand pretty much.”

Decarvalho echoed McLean’s statement, saying the Air Force’s hands on approach to learning was helpful for her. 

“Throughout my whole experience with technical school, I learned most of the skills I needed for the clinical portion of what I studied,” said Decarvalho. “So I had an easier time than everybody else, because I benefited from having those skills already.”

Decarvalho said Air Force medical training takes about 11 months. Learning how to do blood draws, look for normal vital sign ranges, and doing physical assessments are a few of the beneficial parts of the training.

Senior Master Sgt. Karla Belliveau, 104th MDG superintendent of nursing services, notices her Airmen’s motivation, saying they push themselves every month to learn and train as much as they can. 

“The people that are working here are highly, highly qualified,” said Belliveau. “They are highly trained individuals, and most of them have some type of further medical background too. 

The purpose of Air Force and Air National Guard training is to make sure Airmen are prepared to respond to real world scenarios and ready for deployments. 

“I would send them anywhere,” said Belliveau. “If today they came down with the tasking for our whole aerospace medical technician unit to go to Germany, or to a forward deployed location, I would have no reservations whatsoever. Everyone is on top of what they need to be doing.”