The Readiness & Deployment Committee (R&D) is comprised of 3 subcommittees and four (4) teams. The subcommittees and their teams are as follows: Officer Readiness Subcommittee, including the Annual Physical Fitness Test (APFT) Team, Basic Life Saving (BLS) Team; Officer Health & Fitness Promotion Subcommittee, including the Behavioral Health Team; and the Deployment Subcommittee, including the Training & Exercise Team. The specific webpages for each of these teams is accessible on the left menu. If you are interested in joining our workgroup, please contact the Chair or the Team Lead(s).

Officer Readiness Subcommittee

Annual Physical Fitness Test (APFT) Team

The APFT Team educates officers about the revised APFT, and identifies and promotes opportunities for USPHS officers to train for, and to take the APFT together. The Team strives to include officers in remote locations by assisting with networking and linking officers to train together virtually. The APFT Team collaborates with other RDWG teams to achieve these objectives.

Basic Life Support (BLS) Team

The BLS Team serves to identify BLS resources for officers to access in their duty station or local region to maintain BLS certification and basic readiness. Throughout the year the BLS Team will compile a list of BLS course offerings based on regions, and training opportunities for officers to become BLS trainers.  The Team will accomplish this by coordinating officer volunteers to serve as regional points of contacts.

Deployment Subcommittee

The Deployment Team serves as a resource for any deployment-related questions and works closely with the Readiness and Deployment Branch (RDB). The Team interviews officers and shares their stories of unique deployments, what skills/training they found most useful and any lessons learned. These stories are published via The Junior Officer Chronicles (JOC) and other Corps publications.

Training & Exercise Team

The Training & Exercise Team pulls together deployment-related training that would apply to all categories to enhance officers’ skills and readiness potential. The Team interviews officers and shares their stories of unique training opportunities through The Junior Officer Chronicles (JOC) and other Corps publications. The Team also shares opportunities for officers to be a part of preparedness exercises.

Officer Health & Fitness Promotion (OHFP) Subcommittee

The OHFP Team is responsible for encouraging, promoting and building on established healthy lifestyles of PHS officers by providing them with the tools and resources they need to empower themselves and their peers with regards to overall health, fitness levels and deployment readiness. The OHFP Team coordinates Fitness Corner articles for the JOC, gathers and reports Get Fit-Stay Fit tips, reports on PHS Athletics activities and news, and coordinates and reports on resource listing of federal employee wellness facilities and programs.

Behavioral Health Team

The Behavioral Health Team is responsible for coordinating and developing mental health resources for PHS officers, including monthly Practicing Welllness Tips for promoting Junior Officer physical health and mental wellbeing.