TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Inside Tyndall’s physical therapy clinic, recovery often begins with more than a stretch or exercise. Here, Airmen find a team dedicated not only to healing injuries but to restoring confidence and keeping the mission moving.
The 325th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron’s physical therapy team works with Airmen recovering from a wide range of musculoskeletal injuries, from common sprains and strains to post-surgical rehabilitation.
“For us, getting the member back to what they need to do is getting them back into the fight,” said Tech. Sgt. Brandon Fisher, 325th OMRS human performance flight chief. “Airmen who can do their duty unimpeded are mission capable Airmen.”
Their work extends far beyond treatment. Each session is an opportunity to educate Airmen, reduce reinjury risk and help them return to duty stronger than before, Fisher explained.
“A huge part of our job is the mental resilience piece,” he said. “Sometimes it gets lost that these injuries can take a toll on you mentally. Mental resilience and resilience at large are kind of our job as well, because it’s giving people the mental and physical comfortability to say, ‘I can do this.’”
That holistic approach, which combines physical recovery with mental resilience, reflects how Tyndall continues to evolve in its pursuit of operational excellence. Inside the clinic, prevention begins with education, as the team helps Airmen train smarter, recover properly and recognize early signs of overuse.
“When it comes to prevention, a big part of my job is education— teaching Airmen about what’s good for their body and what they can control,” said Lt. Col. Kristoffer Surdukowski, 325th OMRS physical therapy flight commander. “Prevention is also recognizing that fitness should be a priority every day of the year, not just when you’re preparing for a fitness test.”
Looking ahead, the physical therapy flight aims to make care even more accessible by integrating with units across Tyndall. By embedding specialists directly within squadrons, the team hopes to identify problems earlier and reinforce proper training habits before injuries occur.
“I think the most positive evolution would be more of a lean into prevention,” said Fisher. “As we align a little more with a combat fitness orientation, I think where we would strike gold would be to be there before the injuries start. The evolution of physical therapy truly is going to be either in embedding in units or just being more prevention-based than clinical.”
Even as the field continues to evolve, the mission of physical therapy at Tyndall will always remain the same: taking care of Airmen when they need it most.
“Even in a perfect world, injuries will still happen,” said Fisher. “It’s an inescapable truth of active-duty service. So long as injuries exist, there has to be someone there to fix [them]. I can think of no better group than physical therapy to do it.”