Pharmacy flight commander retires Published Sept. 24, 2008 By Steve Pivnick 81st Medical Group Public Affairs KEESLER AFB, MISS. -- Col. Leroy "Frank" Jacobs, 81st Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron pharmacy flight commander, ends a 30-year Air Force career, 3 p.m. Sept. 26 in Keesler Medical Center's Don Wylie auditorium. Retired Col. Jeffrey Sventek, former Air Force Biomedical Sciences Corps chief, officiates. Colonel Jacobs, whose official retirement date is Nov. 1, played a significant role in the medical center's return to operation following Hurricane Katrina. While still assigned to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, he conceived and established the service that processed Keesler's prescription refills at Lackland for delivery to Keesler. This served Keesler pharmacy users for eight months until the pharmacies were rebuilt. Since arriving at Keesler in November 2005, he's led the total reconstruction of four separate pharmacy locations, design of a new base exchange satellite pharmacy and full restoration of pharmacy services to support the medical center's staff and mission and Gulf Coast area beneficiaries. While the rebuilding continues with improvements to the main outpatient pharmacy and construction of the satellite pharmacy, the pharmacy provides more than 1.1 million prescriptions worth more than $25 million annually for more than 35,000 Department of Defense beneficiaries. The pharmacy also supports the global war on terror with an average of five deployed pharmacy staff members in each air expeditionary force cycle. Raised in Iowa, the colonel received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Drake Univer-sity and a direct Air Force commission in 1978. His initial assignment to Offutt AFB, Neb., was followed by assignments to Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea; Scott AFB, Ill., and Royal Air Force Bentwaters, United Kingdom. Colonel Jacobs earned a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989 through Air Force Institute of Technology-sponsored graduate education. He became chief of clinical pharmacy services at David Grant Medical Center at Travis AFB, Calif., where he established the clinical pharmacy and drug information services and a pharmacy practice residency accredited by the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists that has graduated 17 pharmacist practitioners to date. In 1991, he deployed to the 310th U.S. Air Force Contin-gency Hospital at Royal Air Force Nocton Hall, United Kingdom, in support of Oper-ations Desert Shield and Desert Storm where he established an inpatient pharmacy capability for a Level-3 Air Force contingency hospital. In 1993, Colonel Jacobs became one of the first Air Force pharmacists to achieve board certification in the newly-established clinical pharmacy specialty of pharmacotherapy. From 1994 to 2002, the colonel served as pharmacy flight commander at the Keesler, David Grant Medical Center and Malcolm Grow Medical Center, Andrews AFB, Md. As commander of the 59th Diagnostics and Therapeutics (Pharmacy) Squadron at Wilford Hall Medical Center from November 2002 to October 2005, he led establishment of a $2.5 million robotic prescription refill processing center at Wilford Hall, and creation of the San Antonio Multi-Market Board of Pharmacy Directors, a city-wide consolidation of pharmacy services provided by the four San Antonio military treatment facilities. Colonel Jacobs has served as adjunct faculty to the University of the Pacific College of Pharmacy, the Air Education and Training Command clinical consultant for pharmacy, the Air Mobility Command clinical consultant for drug information, pharmacy consultant to TRICARE Regions IV and X, pharmacy consultant to the AETC command surgeon, and member of the Air Force Pharmacy Senior Executive Advisory Board. The colonel and his wife, Sara, initially plan to take some time off and do some traveling. "My dream is to be accepted into the boat building and restoration program at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, R.I.," said the colonel, an avid sailor. "I've really enjoyed my Air Force career and the people I've worked with. Now, it's time to do something new."