Interview by TSgt Ivette Brueggemann
Hello! I am TSgt Rebecca Flores. I was born in Southern California but raised in Texas. I am currently stationed at Lackland Air Force Base working at the Basic Military Training site. I recently just hit my 16 year mark in the military.
I started this journey with my first assignment at Spangdahlem Air Base where I worked Labor and Delivery and Pediatrics. Close to 4 years later, I returned to San Antonio and worked Family Health at Kelly Clinic before PCAing to Brooke Army Medical Center. Soon after promoting to Staff Sergeant, I was selected for the Non Commissioned Officer Retraining Program (NCORP) and was forced retrained into our career field.
As a young NCO, the word on the street during that time was that IDMT’s were independent medics that would deploy all year round. At that time, this was not something I was inclined or interested to do as I had hoped to get accepted into nursing school and commission through NECP. My distaste for the career field in the beginning was something I’d compare to a black licorice jelly bean. You know the feeling where you can’t stomach the idea of eating black jelly beans but when you find yourself in a group of great people who love to take back Jagerbombs -you quickly forget that Jager Bombs taste like black licorice and dive in!
Upon graduation from IDMT School, I joined the 343 TRS Security Forces in support of the 342 TRS Combat Airman Skills Training (CAST) at Camp Bullis in San Antonio, Texas. I soon began to realize that as an IDMT, we have the unique opportunity to see what our operational forces do on a daily basis at the foundational level. Having the opportunity to run lanes attached to the Combat Leaders Course, run medical exercises with Security Forces officers alongside elite Security Forces cadre, and train Airmen in HEAT (Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer) is still the my most memorable parts of my career.
In 2014, I had the opportunity to deploy in support of JSOC. Though I thought I was high-speed and could run circles around most in my “Core 4N” days, this was the first time I had the opportunity to meet and train with a group of IDMT’s that were on a whole new level. That training and deployment would open my eyes to a new layer of challenge.
I was capable, ready, and hungry.
In 2017, I got an assignment to the 35th Fighter Squadron “PITFU” at Kunsan Air Base, ROK. As a first time SME, I had a new appreciation for 4NF’s and quickly learned that a life outside of the Med Group was where the grass was greener (atleast for me). At the peak of Near Peer, as threats and tensions grew high with North Korea, I forward deployed to stand up the clinic at Gwangju Air Base. After “tactically” acquiring equipment and supplies as well as establishing a line of communication with the local hospitals, my time at Gwangju and Korea was over. By this time, I had been an IDMT close to 8 years as I headed to California.
I was assigned to the 60th Medical Operations Squadron at Travis AFB as NCOIC of the Family Medicine Residency Clinic. Though I’d do my best to advocate for myself to not be attached to the MDG, I’d go on to create the FMRCs first AD Walk in Clinic while becoming the IDMT Coordinator where I worked tirelessly to make sure the program would pass a UEI for the first time in 6 years. I wore a dual hat as I was also the IDMT assigned to the Global Reach Laydown (GRL) in support of the 821st Contingency Response Group, an extension of the 621st CRW. Once again, I had the opportunity to train and go TDY with an elite group of individuals while setting up bare base clinics in support of their missions.
It was at Travis where I found myself surrounded by young impressionable Airmen who I could supervise, mentor, and even convince a few of them to become IDMTs. I feel like being able to connect at the base of our career field, with Airmen who were new to the Air Force, was right where I needed to be to help recruit our future generation of medics. Had I kept that mentality of “avoid the MDG at all cost” or really had any say in making sure I never stepped into the MDG again, I would’ve never had that as an opportunity.
The truth is, my time as an IDMT and in the Air Force is numbered. I’m counting down the days until retirement, but I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do something I enjoy and meet some really great people in the process. There is something about being in a BOMC cave with a group of IDMT’s where regardless of what you are doing, we don’t allow that environment to define us. We do the most with the least, and we hit the ground running independently.
Be a mentor! Be the brain to pick, the ear to listen, and the push in the right direction. I wouldn’t be who I am today without them. Here’s to us!
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