Air Force Captain Research Articles

Suspected Mal de Debarquement Syndrome: A Case Report Highlighting the Difficulty in Diagnosis and Management.

MdDS is syndrome of oscillating vertigo following cessation of passive motion. The pathogenesis of this disorder is not well understood, but functional imaging studies suggest cortical connectivity dysfunction in feedback loops of the vestibulo-ocular system and visuo-spatial system. Patients go through multiple appointments and often specialist referrals before being diagnosed. After diagnosis, optimal management is difficult. Several treatment modalities, including medication, vestibular rehabilitation, and neuromodulation, have had variable success in management. We present the case of a young, female active duty Air Force Captain who developed symptoms while deployed. She underwent multiple treatments with variable success. Her clinical course highlights the difficulties for patients and providers posed by suspected MdDS.

Fly Me to the Moon

On August 16th, 1960, sitting in an open-air gondola at 103,000’ carefully suspended by a 200’ tall helium balloon, U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger peers upon cobalt blue skies and the blackest of black (Figure 1). The avant-garde astronaut gets word from the ground crew, “Jump!”, triggering a free fall from 103,000’ and setting the record for the highest skydive ever by any living being (Kittinger, 1961; Kindy, 2023). Captain Joe blazed the trail for the likes of Sheppard, Grissom, and Glenn, testing the limits of the human body. A mere nine years later helium – a relative newcomer to the Periodic table - again flexed its muscle by aiding the propulsion system for Apollo 11’s moon expedition. Jettisoning to 2022, a whopping 180 space launches occurred worldwide, and this number is expected to double in less than seven years. Space tourism leads the pack with an average orbital joyride costing ∼$100K of helium to achieve lift-off (NASA/SpaceEx). During his lonely and ubiquitous ascent into the heavens in 1960, could Captain Kittinger have envisioned the oncoming explosion of helium uses? Could anyone has imagined?

An Analytical Solution to the Extreme Skydiver Problem

On August 16, 1960, at 7:12 a.m., United States Air Force Captain Joseph W. Kittinger Jr. looked out from his balloon gondola at a height of over 19 miles and… jumped. Kittinger’s altitude and free-fall speed record lasted until Felix Baumgartner’s jump from a height of nearly 24 miles on Oct. 14, 2012. Baumgartner broke several records, including for vertical speed, where he was the first human to break the sound barrier without assisted power.

Amelioration of pain and post-concussive symptoms using multi-modal neurorehabilitation strategies in a 28-year-old male

Amelioration of pain and post-concussive symptoms using multi-modal neurorehabilitation strategies in a 28-year-old male

Impact of Military Physician Rank and Appearance on Patient Perceptions of Clinical Competency in a Primary Care Setting

The patient-physician interaction is an important aspect of primary care medicine. Few studies have investigated the military specific factors that influence these interactions. Using a cross-sectional survey, we evaluated the impact of physician rank and attire on a patient's confidence in their physician's medical abilities and willingness to disclose personal information. Patient perception was assessed in the domains of (1) confidence in physician's medical abilities and (2) comfort discussing sexual, psychological, and personal problems with a physician. Our results found physicians of higher rank showing a higher positive impact on patient's confidence compared to lower ranks (p < 0.0001). Patients were less comfortable discussing sexual (p = 0.001), psychological (p < 0.0001), and personal (p = 0.005) problems with an O-3 (Air Force Captain) than higher ranked physicians. Casual business attire negatively affected patient's confidence in their physician's abilities and in their comfort discussing sexual, psychological, and personal problems (p < 0.0001). Removing resident physician data did not significantly alter results. This pilot study on military rank and appearance shows a statistically significant impact to patient-physician interactions. Lower rank and casual attire is statistically detrimental to the patient's perception of their physician's abilities irrespective of resident physician involvement.

‘Woman Pioneer of Empire’: the making of a female colonial celebrity

In September 1924 a motor-car expedition, led by a former Royal Air Force Captain and his South African-born wife, left Cape Town in an attempt to cross Africa and recapitulate Cecil Rhodes's vision of a unified continent under British rule. The sixteen-month journey received close newspaper coverage both in South Africa and in Britain. This coverage and the spin-off products of the expedition, among them a travelogue film, a written memoir, and numerous media appearances, made the participants-particularly Stella Court Treatt—celebrities. The Court Treatt expedition demonstrates the way in which the British state ruled its colonies in Africa not only by military and bureaucratic means, but also through the symbolic power of modern technology. The tabloid press, the availability of the car and the camera, and the emerging culture of celebrity facilitated the construction and distribution of an image of British colonial ownership to readers in the metropole. A picture of Africa, emptied of menacing groups contesting British rule, emerges from the expedition's reports and from the expedition's narrative. Stella Court Treatt was active in the creation of her persona as a glamorous, plucky and modern colonial celebrity. Using previously unexamined primary sources, this article interrogates questions arising at the intersection of celebrity, colonialism, patriotism and gender in 1920s Britain.

Engineering Theory in the Making: Aerodynamic Calculation “Breaks the Sound Barrier”

Engineering Theory in the Making: Aerodynamic Calculation “Breaks the Sound Barrier” WALTER G. VINCENTI On 14 October 1947, Air Force Captain Charles E. Yeager, at the controls of the Bell XS-1 experimental aircraft, became the first per­ son to fly faster than the speed of sound. Aerodynamic design of this straight-wing monoplane was based on wind-tunnel tests of a model plus empirical knowledge, still embryonic, of airflow near sonic speed. Engineering theory, by contrast, took another five to six years to “break the sound barrier” by calculations for even a simple aerodynamic shape. The theoretical problem thus had its ini­ tial solution after the practical one, a common situation in engi­ neering. The story of the XS-1 has been told many times. This is the story of the theoretical breakthrough. The making of engineering theory receives little detailed atten­ tion in the historical literature. Events and key players in this form ofengineering science have been written about, but few fine-grained case studies exist of how a theory came into being.1 This is in a sense curious, since history of technology has been focused largely on arti­ facts, and an engineering theory is itself an artifact—more specifi­ cally, a tool—to be employed in designing other artifacts. Theoretical Mr. Vincenti is professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. The impetus for a piece involving his own experience came from lun­ cheon-table discussion with Rachel Laudan, to whom he is grateful. He also ex­ presses his gratitude to the following people for help in various ways: Peter Bradshaw, Arthur Bryson, Louis Bucciarelli, Glenn Bugos, Edward Constant, Virginia Dawson, Gottfried Guderley, Ronald Kline, Austyn Mair, Robert MacCormack, Robert McGinn, John Moore, Herbert Pearcey, Eric Rogers, John Spreiter, Brett Steele, Leon Trilling, Hideo Yoshihara, and John Staudenmaier. A short version of this material was presented at the International Conference on Engineering Science sponsored by the Centre Nationale des Recherches Scientifiques and the National Science Foundation, Orleans, France, 15-18 October 1995. ’For the nature and historiography of engineering science, see David F. Channell, The History ofEngineering Science: An Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1989), esp. the introduction.© 1997 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/97/3804-0001$02.00 819 820 Walter G. Vincenti calculations test a design on paper in much the same way as experi­ mental measurements test it in the laboratory. In aeronautics, both aerodynamic theory and the wind tunnel are tools to bring the cir­ cumstances of use vicariously into the design process. In view of the mathematical nature of theoretical tools, however, the paucity of studies of their making is understandable. I shall do my best to make the theoretical nuts and bolts accessible, though readers will need to do their part. Our story embodies a number of themes common to engineering science in general and engineering research in particular. I shall bring these together in a commentary after the narrative, but the reader may want to be alert to them as we go along. One group of themes deals with (a) the assumptions, approximations, and mathe­ matical techniques characteristic of engineering theory before nu­ merical calculation by electronic computers made mathematical analysis less essential, and (b) the mutually reinforcing, threefold makeup of engineering research—theory, experiment, and direct trial. The former are the nuts and bolts mentioned above; the latter underlies the communal process by which knowledge from engi­ neering research becomes created and validated. A second group has to do with social matters such as the nature, motives, and institu­ tional context of the engineering research community. Though of obvious interest for the direction of the research, these could have no effect here on the form of the resultant artifact. Finally, the study provides a case in point for the desirably beneficial relationship be­ tween historical and sociological studies of technology: a paper by sociologist Donald MacKenzie prompts the view here of an engi­ neering theory as an artifact, and the present history illustrates the role of real-world constraints as socially unavoidable givens in engi­ neering. I must also add a personal note. Breaking the theoretical sound barrier has special...

Shuttle crews probe chemistry in space

September is shaping up as an extraordinarily active month for chemically related research in space. Space shuttle Endeavour landed last week after 11 days in orbit around Earth. Some glitches delayed the shuttle's launch and impeded several experiments. But, stresses a National Aeronautics & Space Administration source, the crew completed probably the widest range of experiments ever put on a shuttle at one time. Among experiments successfully completed were tests of a system aimed at preparing highly pure, thin semiconductor films in space. And if all goes as planned, shuttle Columbia will lift off this week on a 16-day mission carrying Microgravity Laboratory-2. The seven astronauts will conduct a wide variety of experiments in materials science, fluid physics, biotechnology, and combustion science. Columbia will carry two astronauts with chemical backgrounds, both making their first space flight. Catherine G. Coleman, 34, an Air Force captain, has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Massachusetts ...

Words, words, words: Even the parliamentarians are the very models of post-modernists

Words not only describe and define events, but also describe and define those who use them. Recent media coverage of the rescue of an American Air Force Captain from Serb-held Northern Bosnia, and the slaughter of a family in Melbourne by a severely disturbed man used the term ‘Rambo’ for both stories. In the same newspaper, the activities of child molesters in Asia were described under the heading ‘Child love’. The importance of the words used to describe assaults on children was recognised in a recent Victorian Crime Prevention committee report.

The San Francisco Chronicle and the Air Mail Emergency of 1934

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsJames S. O'RourkeJames S. O'Rourke is a U.S. Air Force captain, doctoral student in the Newhouse School of Communication, Syracuse University, and instructor of English at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado.

Malaria as a Pediatric Diagnostic Problem in the United States

At the suggestion of Dr. Floyd Denny, Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, the following interesting and instructive case is presented as a Letter to the Editor. A difficult diagnostic problem in a 9-year-old girl consisting of high fever, leukopenia, hemolytic anemia and splenomegaly is presented. C. W., a 9-year-old, white female, is the dependent of an Air Force Captain. She was well until February 17, 1967, when she was sent home from school with a fever.

Acquisition and retention of cross-cultural interaction skills through self-confrontation.

Abstract : An experiment was conducted to assess relative effectiveness of two techniques for training United States Air Force military advisors in cross- cultural communicative skills. Retention of skills over time and effects of attitude on learning were also studied. A scenario required subjects to play the role of an Air Force Captain who had to interact in specified ways with a 'foreign counterpart,' a role played by a confederate of the experimenters. Subjects were to perform 57 distinct behaviors appropriate to the situation and to the fictitious cultural description, which gave either a positive, negative, or neutral impression of the culture. Sixty-six male subjects were divided into two groups and taught the desired behaviors either by extensive reading of training manuals followed by three role-playing sessions or by less reading but with self-confrontation by a videotape replay between successive role-play trials. Subjects returned and performed the same role again either 1 day, 1 week, or 2 weeks following initial training. Self-confrontation proved superior to manual reading in training the desired behaviors. Subjects with positive attitudes toward the culture learned fastest. Retention of skills learned through self-confrontation was high. A discussion of planned future research on cross-cultural training techniques and programs is given.

The Technique and Content of Hitler's War Propaganda Films: Part I: Karl Ritter and His Early Films

A FORMER Imperial Air Force captain by the name of Karl Ritter, just discharged from the army, given back to the civilian life of an unsuccessful artist, walked through the streets of MunichSchwabing. He was hopeless, desperate, and malcontent. He was full of hate, but his hate was aimless. It was December, 1918. Imperial Germany had been defeated. When the Air Force captain came home from the front, he saw new men trying to rebuild a better Germany. Karl Ritter, a young Bavarian from a middleclass family, his mother an opera singer, his father also an unsuccessful artist, did not join them. On the contrary, like another former soldier of Imperial Germany's defeated army-ex-corporal Adolf Hitler-he held the young republic responsible for the Imperium's defeat as well as for his personal disaster. The jobless paperhanger Hitler strolled through the streets of Vienna. The jobless artist Karl Ritter walked the pavements of Schwabing. Full of disgust about everything, including himself, the former Air Force captain said: Our life was useless and senseless. In me, as in many others of my kind, was a bitterness and hopelessness-the torturing thought of desolation and hatred. All around us was this artificial life of frenzied pleasure-seeking. This was the life given back to us. To me it was a life not worth living.' There were similar feelings in the breast of ex-corporal Adolf Hitler. But the hate of the ex-corporal had already found a direc-