JOINT BASE BALAD — Two doctors from Iraq's Ministry of Defense visited the Air Force Theater Hospital and Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility, Nov. 5 - 8, to study U.S. Air Force aeromedical evacuation procedures.
The visit will help the doctors, Maj. (Dr.) Abdul-Razaq and Capt. (Dr.) Mohammed, establish an aeromedical evacuation service for the Iraqi Air Force.
Col. (Dr.) Paul Young, the surgeon general and director of Iraqi Air Force aeromedical services training for the Coalition Air Forces Training Team (CAFTT), and Maj. William Fecke, the CAFTT Surgeon General Office chief administrator, joined Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed on their visit here to help the Iraqi doctors create a program.
"This is crucial to the viability of the Iraqi Air Force," said Young, who is deployed from the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Surgeon General office at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. "We're here in an advisory role to help the Iraqi Air Force create an aeromedical evacuation program that they're comfortable with and one that works for them."
CAFTT's Surgeon General office, based in Baghdad's International Zone, worked with 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing leadership here to make the trip a reality. During their visit, Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed attended briefings on aeromedical evacuation roles and responsibilities, the process of transferring a patient into and out of a CASF, and methods that the U.S. Air Force uses to track its patients during flights.
"These doctors will be the ones who restart aeromedical evacuation services for the Iraqi Air Force," Young said. "They're going to begin training Iraqi medics in a week and a half at New al-Muthana Air Base, [Iraq], and they're going to use what they learn here to establish their course."
One major challenge that Iraqi doctors face is manpower-based. The Iraqi Air Force has 12 doctors for a force of 2,500 airmen, Young said. The situation is even more critical for the Iraqi Army, which has approximately 150 doctors for a force of 250,000 Soldiers.
Complicating matters further is the fact that a doctor may face punishment if a patient becomes more ill or dies during transit, even if the doctor did everything in his power to save the patient's life, Young said.
"Usually, it's something like a monetary fine -- but in the days of Saddam Hussein's regime, if a general died, a lot of times that general's doctor would simply disappear, never to be heard from again," Young said. "So the Iraqi doctors have a “fear factor” that keeps them from doing what they need to do to help their patients for fear of repercussions from their leadership. We have to help advise the Iraqi leadership to change that culture."
After a day of briefings, Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed joined a 332nd Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight to see a mission for themselves. Capt. Rebecca Abt, a flight nurse with the 332nd EAEF, was this mission's medical crew director.
"I'm glad I got to be a part of this mission," said Abt, a native of Bangor, Pa., who is deployed from the 514th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. "I got to talk to the Iraqi doctors a little bit, and they attended the crew briefing with us. They were very attentive and seemed to want to learn."
Throughout each leg of the mission, Abdul-Razaq and Mohammed studied Air Force instructions on aeromedical evacuation and familiarized themselves with the equipment Airmen use to take care of patients. The C-130 returned to Balad shortly after midnight Nov. 8 with the remaining patients, who filed onto a bus bound for the CASF.
Mohammed thanked Coalition Air Forces for putting the trip together.
"I want to say thank you to Col. Young for helping us learn how to establish an aeromedical evacuation service," Mohammed said. "It will be very important to the new Iraqi Air Force."
(By Don Branum, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing)