Flight surgeons, despite their official duty title do not perform surgeries while in flight. The misnomer stems from the early days of aviation medicine, when the U.S. Army Aviation Section ordered three military physicians to attend aviation school to ensure aircrew were physically prepared to fly. Today, flight surgeons are more commonly known as ‘flight doctors’ or ‘flight physicians.’
In current times, flight surgeons still play a unique and integral role in the Air Force mission.