Somalia Deployment Data

In addition, the AMEDD has recently revised some of its AOC codes, which has made interpretation of PROFIS taskings somewhat ambiguous (Table B.1). The problems concern the MSCs and PAs who were once warrant officers in the Medical Corps, but have now been reorganized as commissioned officers in the Medical Specialist Corps. In both cases, a mixture of the old and new AOC codes were named as requirements for PROFIS fillers.

The reorganization of the Medical Service Corps' AOCs from a three-character alphanumeric code to a five-character alphanumeric code presented the most challenging problem, for some of the old 68-series AOCs were changed to codes that were indistinguishable from the old 67-series AOCs. Use of the old AOC codes resulted in some confusing results, such as the deployment of Health Services Information Managers (old 67D) rather than Social Work Officers and Psychologists (new 67D). Similar concerns involved comptrollers and preventive medicine officers, field medical pharmacists, and personnel managers and optometrists. Whenever possible, we interpreted the AOCs according to the new codes, which has the potential of overrepresenting laboratory science, preventive medicine, behavioral science, pharmacy, and optometry officers, while underrepresenting taskings of health services administrators, comptrollers, information managers, patient administration, personnel, and plans and operations officers. This procedure seemed to be the most reliable, since the old 67-series Medical Services Corps positions, now recoded as 67A or 70*67,[2] are usually filled by officers actually assigned to these units, rather than by PROFIS fillers. The old 68-series positions, now coded as 67B, C, D, E, F, and G (among other more definitive codes), are usually filled by officers who spend most of their time working in hospitals and other medical activities, but might be designated as PROFIS fillers.

Table B.1 shows a comparison of the old and new AOCs for the Medical Service Corps. The new AOCs 67A through 67D are catch-all AOCs and include the group of definitive AOCs listed below each category. Assumptions we made in categorizing individuals under the old and new AOCs were as follows: Health Services System Management Officers (67D), computer support personnel, were deployed to support the telemedicine capability. Patient Administration Officers (old 67E) and Health Services Human Resource Managers (old 67F) are typically organic to a medical field unit, so it would be unusual to have PROFIS personnel assigned to these slots. Therefore, we assumed these codes represented the new AOCs of Pharmacy Officer (67E) and Optometrist (67F).

[2]70*67 refers to the following new AOC series: 70K67, 70A67, 70B67, 70C67, 70D67, 70E67, 70F67, 70H67.