KEEPING OUR FORCES HEALTHY
Caring for the health of our Airmen also means helping preclude illness before it can affect our community. Public Health Officers apply public health, preventive medicine, and medical entomology knowledge, techniques, and skills to promote health and reduce the incidence of communicable/zoonotic/vector-borne diseases, occupational and environmental illnesses and injuries, food-borne diseases, and disease and non-battle injuries while in-garrison and deployed. Public Health Officers constantly monitor conditions and potential health threats. These specialists promote public health through epidemiological surveillance of health and disease trends in populations, as well as monitoring food safety practices, and sanitation levels in public and food service facilities.
REQUIREMENTS
You must meet several requirements before joining the Air Force. These concern your background, overall health and other standards set by the Air Force, Department of Defense and federal law.Minimum Education
- Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM/VMD)
- Master of Public Health degree (MPH/MSPH)
Note: all applicable degrees must be from accredited institutions and programs and applicants must have/maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher on a 4.0 scale for all applicable degrees.
Qualifications
For Public Health Officers, knowledge of basic epidemiology, microbiology, food technology and hygiene, communicable diseases, occupational and environmental health,and medical entomology.
- Completion of the basic Public Health Officer (PHO) course and the Contingency Preventive Medicine (CPM) course
- Completion of Officer Training School
- Must be between the ages of 18 and have not reached your 42ndbirthday
For Medical Entomologists, knowledge of medical entomology, arthropod biology, vertebrate and invertebrate hazards, and Integrated Pest Management principles.
- Completion of the basic Public Health Officer (PHO) course and the Contingency Preventive Medicine (CPM) course
- Completion of the Operational Entomology Course
- Certification as a DoD Pesticide Applicator through a DoD-approved course
- Completion of Officer Training School
- Must be between the ages of 18 and have not reached your 42ndbirthday