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BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (July 25, 2008) - Every morning,
the Soldiers of 1st Platoon, C Company, 6th Battalion, 101st
Aviation Regiment, make their way across a scorching flight line to
the platoon's three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Pilots, crew chiefs and medics all take part in the ritual
checks to make sure medical equipment is prepared. They perform
pre-flight inspections and power up the helicopters.
As the medical platoon attached to Task Force Out Front, they
are responsible for conducting medical evacuation missions at a
moment's notice.
"Twenty-four hours a day and 365 days a year, we have two ships
available to pick up urgent and urgent-surgical patients," Army
Capt. Ben Seipel, 1st Platoon leader, said. "We also pick up
casualties on the battlefield or Afghan civilians." The platoon
serves Nurestan, Nangarhar, Konar and Laghman provinces.
The time between calls is filled with a quiet anxiety; the crews
can never completely let their guard down. Waiting becomes a
constant in the life of medevac Soldiers. It's a peculiar situation
to be in -- none of the Soldiers wants anything bad to happen, but
at the same time, doing the job is the only real way to stop the
waiting. To pass the time between missions, some of the Soldiers
take college courses by correspondence.
When a call comes, the Soldiers race to their aircraft, get
their gear on and are ready for takeoff within minutes. This is
critical; every minute counts when life hangs in the balance.
"Our average response time [from receiving a mission to wheels
up] is down to about 12 minutes, which is a significant reduction
from the previous unit that was here," Seipel said. "Our goal is to
never be the weakest link. I never want the process to be waiting
on us to get ready for takeoff; our goal is to be ready and waiting
for launch authority."
Expecting the unexpected is critical to being able to operate in
an environment where hardly anything is routine. Soldiers don't
know what time a call will come, and the medical report they
receive prior to takeoff doesn't always provide a full view of what
they will face.
Early in the morning of July 13, the platoon tactical operations
center received a medevac request to respond to the village of
Wanat, where a small outpost was under attack by enemy forces. In
the battle, nine Soldiers from 173rd Airborne Brigade were killed,
and 15 others were wounded.
Most of the time, things can be really quiet, with absolutely
nothing going on, Army Spc. Saturnino Crespo, 1st Platoon aviation
operations specialist, said. But at other times, he said, things
can be really hectic. Crespo recalled the day of the Wanat
attack.
"When we got the call responding to the attack, things were
happening really fast," he said. "Things were more sudden and
hectic than usual. I was tracking all the aircraft as they went to
the different [forward operating bases] and outposts to pick up
patients. We launched all three aircraft, which is pretty unusual.
We had to launch before the usual morning shift change, so some of
the crews were pulling overtime."
Most of the Soldiers were still asleep when the medevac request
came over the radio, Crespo said. They responded as their training
has conditioned them to: by having their gear on and the
helicopters spun up for launch within minutes.
The attack started early in the morning, Army Staff Sgt. Matthew
Kinney, a flight medic who was part of the mission, recalled.
"We got off the ground really quick," he said. "Once we got
there, we flew over the mountainside directly on top of FOB
Blessing, which was firing artillery on the outskirts of Wanat.
[Close-air support] was on station dropping bombs, and the enemy
was being pushed back away from the wire."
The medevac helicopters had to wait until the bombs hit their
targets before they were the OK to enter. The battle was still
going on when they landed.
"As soon as the bombs were dropped, our Apaches came to the
area," Kinney said. "The first medevac aircraft landed on the base
and picked up six patients. Our aircraft was called into the
[observation post] right next to it. We were originally going to
use the hoist, but the pilots determined that we had a big enough
area to put the aircraft down on the side of a terrace."
Once the helicopter touched down, Kinney exited the aircraft and
climbed down the hillside. He had to breach the outpost's
concertina wire to begin treating patients and preparing them to
board the aircraft.
"After you've been doing this for a while, you don't really
think about what's going on," Kinney said. "Its second nature, and
you keep moving through all the steps. When we got called in, there
was still shooting going on. The Apaches were firing rockets at a
house about 50 to 80 meters to our left. The ground guys were
firing on a house that we were taking fire from. I then determined
that many of [the ground forces we] thought were wounded were
actually [killed in action]."
By keeping their composure under fire, the Soldiers of the
medevac platoon were able to safely extract their wounded comrades
and undoubtedly save their lives.
"It was pretty hard," Seipel said about the Wanat mission. "All
my crews saw quite a bit down there on the ground. It's never fun,
going somewhere and knowing you're going to see fallen Americans on
the ground, especially in that situation, where there's utter
chaos."
The medevac crews handled the situation phenomenally and knew
exactly what they needed to do, Seipel said.
"There was no hesitation at all; the crews hit the ground and
reacted instinctively," he explained. "They did what they were
trained to do, and I am extremely proud of them for handling the
situation as professionally as possible."
While every mission isn't as intense as the Wanat incident, all
calls warrant the same quick response. Persons in danger of losing
life, limb or eyesight are the highest priority, but the crews also
provide routine patient transport.
Even while on call to conduct life-saving missions, the platoon
conducts training exercises that provide Soldiers a chance to hone
their skills. Pilots practice intricate landing techniques and test
the winds above and between the mountains. Crew chiefs get to
improve their aircraft guiding skills and their use of equipment in
the helicopter's cargo area. The medics often get to practice
exiting the aircraft on the hoist, a machine that is used to reach
patients when the helicopter is unable to land.
The combination of actual missions and training flights make for
long days, but the Soldiers say it helps to keep them sharp.
"At the end of the day, a successful mission is a saved life,"
Seipel said. "There are a lot of things that go on, contingencies
that come up and decisions that get made along the way, but if we
can save a life, then we have had success."
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