AMP'ed up, Part 1: The Centrifuge

So I finally finished my Aerospace Medicine Primary course (AMP). This is the course for training flight surgeons in the Air Force. They also have a separate residency program that goes for 2-3 years, but AMP is the starter course for new dudes like me. It starts with 4 weeks worth of powerpoint lectures put into Computer Based Training (CBT); I completed this when I first went to Korea. Then I went to San Antonio, Texas, for more hands-on training for 6 weeks (which included lots of more powerpoints as well).

Highlights included the centrifuge where they spin you like mad in a simulated cockpit on the arm of this machine, that looks like this.

This let you experience high "g" forces, which included 9 g's for 15 seconds. Let me tell you, this is like nothing you've ever experienced, and I've been on tons of rollercoasters and whatnot. One of my friends described it in a great way: it's like the hand of God is pushing you down, and flinging you across the universe. Everyone HATES this feeling, and I did too at first, but I got used to it.

So a little education in g forces. These forces usually press straight down on you, which causes pooling of blood in the vasculature of your lower extremities. Soon no blood reaches your heart. To combat this, you do anti-G straining maneuvers (AGSM), which includes flexing your whole lower body with all your strength, and doing a valsalva (taking a deep breath, and forcefully exhaling against a closed epiglottis). Both of these assist by creating pressures that force blood back up into your head. This usually allows you to tolerate these high g's and not pass out.

Well..... not so for me. Despite doing all this, I still GLOC'ed (general loss of consciousness) with the 9 g's for 15 seconds. And this is quite an experience. Most of the time, I didn't totally GLOC. I would lose my eyesight, lose control of my muscles and slump over, but I was still conscious of this, like I'd be, "Woah, this is weeeeeeiiiird". Thinking this in my head of course, because I couldn't speak since I had no motor control. See this for yourself. Here's an attempt at 15 seconds of 9 g's. You can hear the coach's voice over the intercom.



To finish this part up, I tried the the centrifuge 4 times (most people needed only 1-2 times to pass), and I still couldn't pass the section needed in order to fly in F-16's without restrictions. I'll still be able to fly in them, but just can't do hardcore air combat flights. I think there's something wrong with my heart, like it can't kickstart to warp speed. I'll be trying again in December when I go back to San Antonio for my Aircraft Mishap Investigation training.

Another quick highlight, Big Louie's Pizza... check it out! And it tasted good too.

A little more on Seoul

Sorry for such a boring blog for lack of posts. I'll try to catch up.

So Seoul is awesome. Love it. Glad I'm going to be there for at least at year. It's a big city (about the size of LA), and like Los Angeles, it doesn't have a downtown downtown. Instead it has lots of cool areas in the city, like a young professional area, expat area, university area, etc. Unlike LA, it has an excellent and cheap public transportation system which goes all the way to my base. The above pic is the Samsung Jong-Ro Building, Hanging Glass Façade.

The Wild, Wild West

So here's a short overdue entry about my roadtrip from Dayton to Seattle. First night was Chicago, but my clutch cable snapped a bit south of Chicago. Luckily USAA roadside assistance came to my rescue. At the time, I didn't know what went wrong, so I had it towed to the Evolution specialists at AMS in Chicago. They squeezed me into their very busy schedule with some extra money. That place is amazing. I got to see their shop's car, which is the most powerful Evo in the world as far as I know with over 1000 crank horsepower from the Evo's four cylinders. It's faster than almost all stock supercars. Anyways my brother Tom met me in Chicago, and we stayed at my friend Derek's place near downtown Chicago. So I was a good place for my car to break down.


We drove through the Badlands in South Dakota, which is a detour you must take if you're driving through the area.
We got there at a good time.

The beauty inspires Tom to do what he needs to do.

Another must see in South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore. Cool place.

And yes, I wore the same clothes the whole way.

Base Exercise

We are doing a base exercise this week. Pretty much we pretend we're at war. I'm on the Initial Response Team, where a tech, an ambulance driver, and myself go out into the field to pick up the injured. My first run out was a mass casualty of 7 men. The fire department was supposed to organize the scene before I got there, but I ended up having to run the program myself. Lots learned from the experience, but I did well considering it was my first.

We have to wear our chem warfare jacket and pants all the time, and every once and a while don out gas masks. It gets really hot with all this, a flak vest, doctor vest, ulitilty belt, helmet and so on. We're not allowed to go off base or shop for anything including food, but we're allow to go home to sleep, which in the real situation, we'd sleep in the hospital.

I don't have TB

Good news. My PPD came back negative, so I did not contract latent tuberculosis while I was in India. Some of the doctors there thought I probably contracted it, as about half of our patients had TB, and some had very active diseases. Often people don't show any symptoms when they first contract TB. It just holes up until it sees an ideal time to attack.

Songtan & Seoul

Still busy here, but no longer suffering without linens. I got a couple chances this weekend to go off base: to the strip outside the gate in Songtan and Seoul. The strip here is quite a trip: bars, clubs, restaurants, stores, and so on -- all catered to the airmen here. The local beer Hite is good and only $3 a bottle. It's less than a mile from my apartment (which is right next to the hospital I work at).
Seoul is 1 1/2 hours by the train/subway. It costs about a dollar each way. 45 minutes away when you drive. A local friend showed me around, which made it relaxed and easy. Seoul is huge and has everything you could want. Traffic and the sidewalks weren't too busy, but it was a Sunday, which most Koreans have off from work. About 1/3 are Christian. The English speaking church service I went to reminded me of my church when I was in highschool. Kind of 90's vinyard style.

Accomplished and not

Got smallpox and anthrax vaccines
Obtained chemical warfare gear and flight suit
Bought groceries
Bunches of boring items....

To do:
Buy bedding
Get a phone
Call family
Get Korean driver's lisence
Find someone in the apartment building that will share wi-fi with me
Finish my computer based aerospace medicine training
etc. etc. etc.

Drinking from the fire hydrant

Sheesh, sheesh, sheesh... I've got stacks of paperwork to fill out, checklists of things to do, equipment to get, commanders and pilots to meet, tests to take, and over 80 hours of computer-based training. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed, but luckily I have 2 weeks to get it all accomplished. Not only am I jumping into the specialty of Aerospace Medicine, but also leaping into the Air Force and their millions of acronyms, forms, procedures, and headaches. This is going to be a sweet job, but I've got an extremely steep learning curve.

I don't have much time to do much else. Like I still have no bed sheets. So I slept on the couch in my clothes with a towel for a sheet.... didn't work well. Little did I know, but even when you turn "off" your A/C, the Air Force still deems it fit to blast in A/C air from somewhere. I tried closing the vents, so hopefully tonight will be warmer. And tomorrow, I'll get my sheets. I don't have any food in the house (and the hospital doesn't have a cafeteria). I have no car to go out and purchase any of this stuff. Plus I have no internet, telephone, or cell phone coverage. So I'm at the library, trying to catch up on things... Well, enough of the complaining. It'll be a good year.

Well, I'm in Korea now, but this blogger website is in Korean, and I can't figure out how to switch it to English. Let's see if I can guess which is the "Publish" button...

Seoul is way expensive!

My mom just informed me that Seoul is the 3rd most expensive city in the world for Americans to live in. Considering housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment, Seoul is 22% more expensive than New York City. Only Moscow (#1) and London (#2) were more expensive. But I'm not too worried, because the only areas eating my bills will be transportation (gas over there is nearly $6.50 per gallon), food, and entertainment. Clothes over there are CHEAP.
Here's the original article.