KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The Air Force core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do embody the very essence of what every Airman should strive to be. Throughout his military career, the core value of “excellence in all we do,” of exceeding the status quo, resonated true with the commander of the 36th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Col. Tom Hansen. It still rings true for him in all that he does, even in his scheduled retirement from the Air Force Reserve June 15, 2018.
While he was growing up, Hansen didn’t have any particular career aspirations. After graduating from high school, he worked various odd jobs for a few years before landing employment in one of his town’s hospitals. It was here that he found his focus, discovering how much he liked the medical career field.
“At that point I started looking into options to take my education forward into the Army. They offered the option of using the G.I. Bill after your initial enlistment,” said Hansen.
He enlisted in the Army in 1975, just shortly after the end of the Vietnam War, and served as a company-grade medic at Walter Reid National Military Medical Center, Maryland, until his separation in 1978. He noted how much he enjoyed serving and helping people there.
“I really just enjoyed taking care of people. It was very rewarding,” said Hansen. “I’ve always been very comfortable with what we do in the medical career field, take caring of our wounded and injured warriors.”
He then entered college, graduating from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1982. Afterwards he earned his Master’s in Nursing from the University of Washington in 1987 so that he could work on the civilian side as a family nurse practitioner.
He was commissioned in the Army Nurse Corp as a 1st Lieutenant and four years later transferred to the Air Force Reserve. He spent the majority of his career serving in various roles within the 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at McChord Air Force Base, Washington. In November 2013, he took command of the 36th AES, Pope Army Air Field, North Carolina, before leading the stand-up of the 36th AES at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, in October 2016.
During his time at the 36th AES, and even in other command positions throughout his career, Hansen said that he strongly believed in “leading from the front.”
“I think that if I would ask people to do something, it’s because I myself would do it. For instance, if I expect people to be physically fit, it’s because I work hard to be physically fit as well,” said Hansen.
He also mentioned that he always made it his goal as a leader to push beyond the status quo.
“If the status quo is what we’re doing, then we need to look forward and beyond that, to see what we’re not doing so that we can be doing it, and to see what we need to get ready to do,” said Hansen. He also stressed the importance of having a strong team of people who can work together to actualize ideas.
While serving as the 455th Expeditionary AES commander January to May of 2016, he helped initiate and implement a more efficient and timely way to perform aeromedical evacuations. His push of working together to go beyond the status quo resulted in reducing the time it took to get permissions to leave for an aeromedical evacuation.
Prior to that it could take anywhere from 12 to 14 hours to get permissions to evacuate a patient, but after looking at aeromedical evacuation doctrine and publications, he and his team determined the physicians operating in the field could make the decision to call for medical evacuation.
“Now that we’ve moved to that process, we are able to get wheels up to go get a patient within 20 minutes – so literally 20 minutes from the time we receive the call to the time we can leave to go pick up the patient in the field,” said Hansen.
This concept transferred over to the way the 36th AES performs their training for aeromedical evacuations, as noted by Chief Master Sgt. Voller Kiefer, 36th AES superintendent.
“The current, relevant, out-of-the-box training spearheaded by Colonel Hansen is developing the 36th AES into a full spectrum unit,” said Kiefer. “The cohesiveness, family mentality, and total support for the Airmen he fostered in the unit is unmatched anywhere I have been.”
At his retirement ceremony held today, Col. Kathleen Flarity, Mobilization Assistant to the Command Surgeon, Air Mobility Command, commended Hansen and his strengths as a leader.
“He is a leader of character, and he believes in the mission. He has served with inspiring courage, dedication and patriotism,” said Flarity. Turning to address Hansen and his family, Flarity said, “Tom, you and your family represent the best of what America has to offer.”