New vet clinic opens its doors

  • Published
  • By Ryan Hansen
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  Members of Team Offutt, including a few with four legs, gathered together on a typical cool, fall morning to celebrate the grand opening of the new base veterinary clinic here Oct. 20.

"The new veterinary clinic is the culmination of years of planning by many professionals dedicated to provide top quality care to our military working dogs and our beloved pets of Team Offutt," said Army Capt. (Dr.) Jason Gladney, base veterinarian with the 55th Aerospace Medicine Squadron. "The vet clinic now has the needed space to enhance services provided and improve care to our patients."

The new $680,000 clinic is 40-percent larger than the old facility and increases efficiencies for the entire vet staff of six personnel. It includes a laboratory, pharmacy, four separate prep rooms and a dedicated surgery suite as well as on-site digital X-ray capabilities for the first time.

"The care provided to our pets and military working dogs will expand tremendously in this facility while maintaining the high-quality of care they are already known for," said Col. Michael Allshouse, 55th Mission Support Group commander and presiding official over the event.

The main focus and mission of the veterinary clinic is the health and welfare of the military working dogs assigned to the 55th Security Forces Squadron. They are key force multipliers and deploy regularly to dangerous locations downrange.

"The new clinic is bigger and better equipped to meet our dogs' needs," said Tech. Sgt. William Thomas, military working dog trainer for the 55th SFS. "There are more rooms, so we don't have to wait to be seen ... and with the new X-ray machine we'll no longer have wait until the hospital can fit us in."

There are currently eight military working dogs assigned to the 55th SFS at Offutt. In order to travel out of state, these hard-working animals must have a valid health certificate and to keep those current they are seen regularly throughout the year by the clinic staff.

"(Our military working dogs) search over 3,000 vehicles and patrol 3,000 miles of perimeter a year, lead explosive searches for such distinguished visitors as the first lady, the vice president of the United States, Chinese diplomats and countless other base and public events," Colonel Allshouse said. "The ongoing and direct care provided by the vet clinic personnel (to the military working dogs) can now be enhanced by this top-notch facility."

In addition to military working dogs, the new facility is also now more equipped to serve the pets of Team Offutt's active-duty personnel as well.

"Having a facility this size we'll be able to see more patients than ever before," said Army Sgt. Steven Allen, NCO in charge of the clinic. "We'll be able to offer them surgical procedures on a daily basis now whereas before we were only able to do it maybe three or four days a month. And we're also looking at adding dental procedures, which would be a huge savings compared to what they are charged on the outside for that service."
Sergeant Allen has been with the vet clinic here for almost three years and played an integral part in planning the new clinic.

"They gave us an outline of a new building and we were able to reconfigure it to what we thought would be best," Sergeant Allen said. "It was a neat process to be a part of."
The base veterinarian clinic is a non-appropriated funds facility and serves a tremendous amount of Team Offutt members throughout the year.

"To give you an idea on the amount of usage our clinic gets by our service members," Colonel Allshouse said, "last fiscal year alone the vet clinic made a profit of over $70,000."

Funds for this project came from the nearly $30 million Offutt received as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The money was distributed to stimulate the local economy while improving the quality of life of base's military members and their families.

"The opening of this new building marks years of planning to improve the quality of care and expand veterinarian service to our four-legged patrons and active-duty warriors of Team Offutt," Captain Gladney said.

The new veterinary clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and will be expanding to include Fridays starting Nov. 1. It is located at 403 Butler Blvd., just across from the Defense Reutilization Management Office.