University of Nebraska Medical Center breaks ground on Infectious Diseases Air Transport facility

Nebraska Examiner · Erin Bamer · September 4, 2026

From left to right: Lee Williames, MD, director, Office for the Advancement of Military Medicine, UNMC; Christopher Kratochvil, MD, vice chancellor for external relations, UNMC; Gov. Jim Pillen; Mayor John W. Ewing, Jr.; H. Dele Davies, MD, chancellor of UNMC; Sen. Deb Fischer; Col. Elizabeth Schnaubelt, MD, director, Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills-Omaha, USAF; University of Nebraska President Jeffrey P. Gold, MD; Lt. Gen. John J. DeGoes, MD, surgeon general and commander, Medical Command, USAF; Lt. Col. Robert Schafer, JD, regent, University of Nebraska System; Congressman Don Bacon; Jennie Bartholomew, UNMC associate vice chancellor and Nebraska Medicine vice president, facilities management and planning. (Photos by Erin Bamer/Nebraska Examiner) OMAHA — A collection of officials representing the state and the University of Nebraska broke ground Friday on a new training facility at the southern edge of the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus.

The groundbreaking ceremony launched the first phase of a $17.4 million project building an Infectious Diseases Air Transport training facility, set to open in early 2028. The facility will house biocontainment transport modules and an aircraft fuselage designed to provide advanced training for U.S. Air Force members with the Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (C-STARS) stationed at UNMC.

A rendering of the Infectious Diseases Air Transport training facility to be built at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. (Photo courtesy of UNMC) U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said the project will cement Nebraska’s status as a leader in national defense, helping to care for the nation’s military and protect public health. Several speakers at Friday’s event said the facility will be the first of its kind in the United States.

“We are the home of global health security,” said Gov. Jim Pillen. “Nobody in the world does it better in any kind of challenge for health security.”

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said the University of Nebraska — and particularly UNMC — is the “gold standard” for fostering effective partnerships with the federal government and the military. Friday’s speakers highlighted UNMC’s quarantining American cruise ship passengers who were exposed to a deadly hantavirus earlier this year, as well as its role in Nebraska’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Bacon and other speakers also praised UNMC’s aid through multiple Ebola outbreaks. Lt. Gen. John J. DeGoes said UNMC helped train Air Force medical officials stationed in Kenya aiding with an ongoing outbreak in central Africa, while Bacon referenced UNMC treating three Ebola patients in 2014 during the largest and deadliest outbreak of the virus in recorded history.

At the time, Bacon said, he viewed moving Ebola patients to Nebraska as a “gutsy move,” but it paid off.

“You showed the world what you can do with a very hard task,” Bacon told attendees representing UNMC.

Col. Elizabeth Schnaubelt, director of C-STARS’ Omaha unit, said the facility will help the U.S. prepare for challenges that can’t be anticipated, like another pandemic. University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold said such a resource is invaluable, especially in a time of “geopolitical uncertainty.”

“If you think for one minute that today is not about protecting our freedom and protecting those who wear the cloth of our nation, think again,” Gold said.

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