Proactive enlisted leader enhances readiness at Al Udeid AB

Published April 1, 2026
By Maristela Romero
Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- “Train like someone’s life depends on it because one day it will,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samantha Berkemeyer.

As an aerospace medical service craftsman, Berkemeyer said her passion for leadership and healing others comes from a long line of family members who have served in the military. Her grandmother served as a Vietnam-era Army nurse and her father retired from the U.S. Army Special Forces as a combat medic.

Image of an Airman posing for a photo. — U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samantha Berkemeyer smiles in an office at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, where she serves as the additional duty First Sergeant, Lackland Medical Operations Squadron, January 2026. Within this role, she is responsible for the morale, health, and welfare of active duty service members, civilians, and their families, along with advising enlisted members to ensure a medically ready force. (Courtesy photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samantha Berkemeyer)

Throughout 2025, Berkemeyer was deployed as a dual-hatted operational medicine flight leader and senior 4N functional manager for the 379th Expeditionary Medical Squadron at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, and returned from deployment in October.

She said every day was a dynamic mix of managing personnel development, mentorships and process improvement projects across various specialty teams including public health, flight medicine and bioenvironmental.

Among her responsibilities, Berkemeyer assessed the deploying team’s certifications in Tactical Combat Casualty Care, immunizations and ambulance operations. Once in theater, she leveraged her experience in education and training to work with specialty team leaders for a full team assessment. They developed in-house training plans, which identified and addressed training gaps against theater requirements before the 4N medics reached Al Udeid AB.

“Our team leaders and subject matter experts are real heroes. We identified the need and laid the groundwork,” Berkemeyer said.

They organized multi-day joint training scenarios with security forces, the fire department, and aeromedical evacuation teams, which involved TCCC and military working dog care - to ensure their medics were not just certified, but truly mission ready in every scope.

For her proactive approach, U.S. Air Force Col. Nancy Johnson, then-379 EMDS squadron commander, recognized Berkemeyer as a Trusted Care Hero in April 2025.

Image of Airmen training on an aircraft. — U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samantha Berkemeyer, additional duty First Sergeant, Lackland Medical Operations Squadron, assists fellow medics during an aeromedical evacuation Critical Care Air Transport Team training at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, September 2025. (Courtesy photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samantha Berkemeyer)

“Her unwavering commitment to the deployed mission has maximized unit effectiveness and mitigated future patient harm conditions,” Johnson said. “If it hadn’t been for her astute pre-deployment requirements and requests, the 379 EMDS would have fallen short on meeting our deployed requirements and caring for our deployed members.”

Berkemeyer said their team’s efforts to revise their comprehensive medical readiness program checklist, and their careful assessment of base-specific needs were essential to maintaining operational readiness at a moment’s notice. As a result, the 379 EMDS was fully mission capable when war broke out between Israel and Iran from June 13-24, 2025.

“This proactive stance allowed us to be ready during the 12-day war, but also to give heads up to the unit deployment manager and functional managers for the next rotating units for a smoother transition,” she said. “By the time I returned home, the official CMRP checklist had been updated to reflect the exact gaps our team experienced and trained for.”

Now serving as the additional duty first sergeant for the Lackland Medical Operations Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, she continues to provide mentorship and advise leadership on enlisted matters.

For Berkemeyer, the Trusted Care Hero recognition reinforced a core belief - that proactive leadership and commitment to training are fundamental to patient safety and mission success.

“It’s a powerful affirmation that our efforts to anticipate needs and empower our people made a tangible difference,” she said.

Image of Airmen in formation, posing for a photo. — U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samantha Berkemeyer poses among medics assigned to the 379th Expeditionary Medical Squadron at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, September 2025. She served as the operational medicine flight leader at the time, overseeing personnel development and mentorship. (Courtesy photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Samantha Berkemeyer)