Medical evacuation squadron works around clock
AFPN
November 18, 2002
by Staff Sgt. Bobby Yettman 455th Expeditionary Operations Group Public Affairs
11/18/02 - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- Business has been relatively slow for Maj. Jim Sterling and his team at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. They are not complaining though because slow days for them mean no injuries for coalition forces in the region.
"We like to fly," said Sterling, deputy squadron commander for the 438th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. "But not at the expense of coalition injuries or illness."
Sterling's unit, the biggest medical evacuation unit in the theater, is based with the Army Reserve's 339th Combat Support Hospital, the largest medical facility in theater.
The squadron's primary mission is to evacuate patients to a place where they can get a higher level of health care. Being at a forward location like Bagram means they get a lot of patients from brought in from a forward area by helicopter.
"We have an aeromedical evacuation liaison (here) who coordinates airlift for patients," Sterling said. "They also work with the airlift authority at Prince Sultan Air Base [Saudi Arabia] to determine the priority level of the patient. Then the tasking comes to us and we alert our crews and go to meet the plane."
A typical medical crew consists of a flight nurse and two medical technicians. For more critically injured patients, there are also critical care air transportation teams which include a physician, a nurse and a respiratory therapist.
Because the Bagram medical unit controls most of the northern area of responsibility, Sterling's unit has two of the four CCAT teams in the theater. The other two are at Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Sterling's unit, many of whom are from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., has been in country since mid-September. Since then they have medically evacuated 42 patients.
"One of the more exciting missions we had was when we flew a crew and a CCAT team to Herat," Sterling said. "We had to fly below a certain altitude and go in with snipers on board because we were landing in hostile territory."
When things do slow down, the evacuation squadron takes time to inventory their gear, perform routine maintenance and train. The unit noncommissioned officer in charge, Tech. Sgt. Craig Franklin, oversees those responsibilities.
"I act as the buffer between the Army and the Air Force to make sure daily operations go smoothly," he said. "I also train all the new people on the basics of night-vision goggles and nighttime flightline driving."
Franklin has been in the medevac career field for about two years. Previously, he worked in the fuels and cryogenics fields. Sterling said his background in his previous jobs can and has come in very handy.
"He's able to fill our patient liquid oxygen bottles for us," Sterling said. "It helps expedite things a great deal when we don't have to wait for someone else to fill them."
Expediting their processes is helpful for the evacuation squadron because they do not always have a "slow day."
"The unit averages about four to five flights per week," Sterling said. "When it rains, it pours. If we have four missions on our status board we're at about 80 percent of our usual pace."
Describing one of the squadron's typical days is difficult. With their mission, there are no typical days, according to Staff Sgt. Isaac Gomez, a reservist flight medic on his first deployment from San Antonio.
"The majority of our missions happen at night on a busy flightline," he said. "The aircrews don't like to stay on the ground long."
Gomez said this deployment is a good opportunity to put all his training together and see the results.
"You wish no one would get hurt," he said. "But if they do, you know they'll get the best care possible."
Sterling said one of his big moments comes right after loading patients onto a plane on a darkened airfield.
"You have plane's engines running during a nighttime operation. You see the plane's door close and the plane takes off ... it's a rush," he said.
Once a patient has left Bagram, the squadron can track his or her progress using a Web-based program, which allows the patient's unit to keep updated on the individual's status.
"They all want to know we're taking care of their troops," Sterling said.
For the member's of Sterling's unit, whose days are as short as 12 hours or as long as 24, the reward comes when they know patients they have transported are doing well.
"That lets us know we did the right things," Sterling said. "That's why we're here ... why we're Air Force medics."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
