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Guardsmen open Baghdad aeromedical staging facility

Air Mobility Command News

Release Date: 5/28/2003

By Tech Sgt. Ruby Zarzyczny 437th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AMCNS) - The 379th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron has opened a 10-bed mobile aeromedical staging facility at Baghdad International Airport beside the military flight line to conduct joint service, coalition and civilian air evacuation missions.

In the field, after self-aid and buddy care, a patient needing additional medical attention goes into a battalion aide station or an Army combat support hospital. If the injury is serious enough the patient comes to the MASF.

"The MASF is a staging area for patients being evacuated out of the theater from Army combat support hospitals and into the aeromedical evacuation system," said Maj. Lynne Medley, 379th EAES commander deployed from the Air National Guard's 118th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Nashville, Tenn.

The MASF has four flight nurses, one medical service corps officer, one administration airman, two radio operators, and seven aeromedical evacuation technicians who run a 24- hour, seven-day-a-week operation. They are all Guardsman from the Nashville squadron, and they have deployed to Baghdad IAP together.

"I love being here," said Master Sgt. Ken Quattlebaum, 379th EAES noncommissioned officer in charge, first sergeant, and the commander's righthand man. "We've been training together for this kind of situation for two years. And when we got the call, they called the whole team and deployed us together. We've had two years to get to know each other, and if you were to throw different people together, they might not have been able to work together as well as we have."

According to Major Medley, it's critical for the team to work well together because the patients are coming by ground ambulance and helicopters, and it takes all of them pulling together to keep the mission going.

"About 80 percent of the patient movement to the MASF is mostly at night because of the availability of planes," said Major Medley. "When the JPMRC (Joint Patient Movement Requirements Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.) decides a patient will move, the MASF will communicate by secure radio to coordinate the patient movement. Then we wait to hear the incoming coppers. Some of the patients need medical attendants to stay with them, and we can generate a crew to go with the patient and take care of them in-flight."

The Nashville-based squadron set up shop in Baghdad May 7, and within two weeks moved 74 litter patients, 169 ambulatory patients, and 15 attendant patients.

"When the patients get here we check their vital signs, do a physical assessment, check and change bandages, check IV sites, and check to see if they need medications," said Major Medley.

"Once the patients are stabilized we provide them with showers, toothpaste and cooled water, something many of the patients coming from the field haven't seen in months. They can also take a trip into the 'care package' area, referred to as 'Wal-Mart,' to select items they might need or want.

"We're also supporting the humanitarian side, said Major Medley. "They will bring their patients here to stay where it's cool and readily accessible to the flight line."

The Baghdad airport actually has two areas for operations, the military side and the civilian side, separated by a distance of about seven miles.

"The Iraqi civilians who are evacuated through the MASF are put on the planes with the approval of the Secretary of Defense," said Major Medley. "An Iraqi civilian working with the Army was injured in an ambush was evacuated through the MASF recently. Many of the patients are evacuated to hospitals in Kuwait. The military patients are treated in Kuwait or sent on to the hospital in Germany."

The 10-bed MASF averages about 20 patients a day, and provides tent city medical care while the expeditionary medical support teams are in the process of standing up.

"We work under stressful situations, said Major Medley. "We have had anyone from a critical injury pilot to an injured four-month-old baby. We know each other well, and that helps us cope with the stress."

"These guys have gone above and beyond the call of duty," said Sergeant Quattlebaum. "The radio operators and the admin, not being medical, help out with patients while they wait for their ride. And the medical technicians are working the radios, radio operators are helping with litter patients. Whatever needs to be done they're ready and willing to do it."

"We have the best medical care and patient evacuation system in the world," said Sergeant Quattlebaum. "Someone who is out there actually fighting can be confident that they will have the best medical treatment in the world, and we're part of that system."

"I would let any of my team give me medical care, and that's how confident I am in their abilities," said Major Medley.

The MASF was activated March 17 and in theater March 25 operating from an undisclosed forward location before setting up the staging facility.

"The MASF will be here as long as the contingency operation is here," said Major Medley. "We're staying until September, but we're prepared to stay as long as we're needed."