News

AFMES transitions to Defense Health Agency

  • Published
  • By Roland Balik
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  The Armed Forces Medical Examiner System has a history dating back to the 1950s and early 1960s which evolved by the expansion of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's field of study that included a forensic pathology registry in 1958.

In 1959, the Military Environmental Pathology Division was established consisting of forensic pathology, aviation medicine and toxicology and in 1962, the first forensic pathology fellowship in the United States was created.

Over the years, AFMES transitioned from the AFIP to the Medical Research and Material Command in the fall of 2011 with its move to Dover AFB, Delaware, and AFMES was formally transferred from MRMC to the Defense Health Agency in a flag-casing ceremony of the AFMES colors held here on August 31, 2015 at the base theater.

Col. Ladd Tremaine, director, Armed Forces Medical Examiner and U.S.Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Stanley Travioli, AFMES senior enlisted advisor, cased the AFMES colors witnessed by Lt. Gen. Douglas Robb, director, DHA; Maj. Gen. Brian Lein, commanding general, U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command; Rear Adm. Bruce Doll, director of Research Development and Acquisition for the DHA and deputy commander of the U.S. Army MRMC; Brig. Gen. Ronald Place, Office of the Surgeon General; distinguished guests, AFMES personnel and members of Team Dover in attendance.

"This organization is truly one of the key organizations within our Department of Defense, for over 50 years it has treated all of our fallen with the utmost of dignity and respect," said Lein. "I don't know of any other organization that has had such a lasting impact on soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and their family members than the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System."

AFMES has participated in high profile cases such as the autopsy of President John F. Kennedy, the Apollo 1 mission mishap, the 1978 Jonestown mass suicide, the 1985 Gander, Newfoundland crash, the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion, the 9/11 attacks, casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, as well as the ongoing repatriation and identification of recently discovered remains from past conflicts.

"AFMES will be going through another major change requiring a level of adaptation and innovation far above and beyond what has now become our established routine," said Tremaine.

Approximately 250 military, civil service and contractor personnel assigned to AFMES will now fall under the Department of Defense due to the transition.

"Major change has been required of AFMES recently when we transitioned from AFIP to MRMC in 2011," said Tremaine. "Consider this, by the fall of 2011 not only were we required to change our budgetary, logistic, supply, operations and administrative practices to align them with our new agency MRMC, we also had to move an entire organization and its people from the Washington, D.C. area to Dover, Delaware, all the while providing seamless service to our customers."

In his closing remarks, Tremaine praised the men and women of AFMES for being able to adapt to changes over the years and assured continued mission success without interruption and degradation.

"Here at AFMES, we don't shrug our shoulders, we shoulder the burden. We don't hang our heads in frustration, we use our heads to rise above the challenges. That is who we are, it's included in our DNA," said Tremaine. "Before continuing the onward march, it is appropriate that we pause on this height to strengthen our faith and renew our hope for a future with the Defense Health Agency that is filled with both professional and personal prosperity."