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DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz., April 6, 2010 – For some military members, the call to duty is surpassed only by the call to help others. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Corey Hellmann discusses the best way to load a critical care patient onboard an Air Force transport aircraft for medical evacuation from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Jan. 9, 2010. U.S. Air Force photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For Air Force Tech. Sgt. Corey Hellmann, a reservist who serves with the 920th Rescue Wing, helping others is his mission in life. When he isn't providing respiratory therapy at his civilian...

8/4/2009 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) -- Three Air Force aircraft along with multiple aircrew, aeromedical evacuation teams, and agencies from around the world gave a British soldier a fighting chance at life in late July after the soldier sustained multiple gunshot wounds and had his blood supply replaced more than 10 times at a military hospital in Afghanistan. According to officials, the soldier sustained multiple wounds to the abdomen and chest, and was transfused with 75 units of blood and another 75 units of platelets. Emergency surgery was conducted to repair the soldier's liver and lung. After...

12/23/2008 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- Iraqi medical airmen took a step in the evolution of the air force as an effective fighting force Dec. 20 as they conducted an aeromedical evacuation mission from the Air Force Theater Hospital here to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. Three wounded patients, an Iraqi police officer and two children who were injured by an improvised explosive device, were transported from the hospital's Patient Administration and Disposition, or PAD, area to Baghdad in Iraqi air force Mi-17 Hip helicopters. After treatment in Baghdad, the Iraqi police officer returned to his...

12/8/2008 - NEW AL-MUTHANA AIR BASE, Iraq (AFNS) -- Instructors from the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio graduated 14 Iraqi air force medics from an aeromedical evacuation basics course here Dec. 4. The graduation ceremony was the culmination of 12 days of training that ended with a patient movement exercise requiring the students to prepare a C-130 Hercules for in-flight patient care. "We had them do everything from reconfiguring the inside of the C-130 and setting up all its internal components for movement to creating a load plan that tells how and where to...

11/24/2008 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- Iraqi airmen conducted an aeromedical evacuation mission from here Nov. 21, ferrying an Iraqi servicemember injured in combat from the Air Force Theater Hospital here to Forward Operating Base Gabe in Baqubah, Iraq. "Aeromedical evacuation is crucial to the viability of the Iraqi air force," said Col. (Dr.) Paul Young, the Coalition Air Forces Training Team surgeon general and director of Iraqi Air Forces Aeromedical Services Training. "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...

Master Sgt. Scott Wilkes checks on Marine Lance Cpl. Geroge Diaz during an aeromedical evacuation mission over Iraq, Nov. 7, 2008. Photo by Airman 1st Class Jason Epley, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing. 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...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- A total force unit here supports joint missions to help save the lives of the coalition forces on the frontlines. The Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and active-duty nurses, medical technicians and others who make up the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron are on a mission: To transport injured and ill U.S. and coalition forces to locations where they can get the medical care they need. “We do everything that we can do to make sure that the people we treat have every chance at recovering from their injuries and being reunited with...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2005 – Better training, more advanced equipment and aeromedical evacuation procedures that are constantly being improved are helping save thousands of lives of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force medical officers told the American Forces Press Service during a Pentagon interview. Air Force Lt. Col. Warren Dorlac, chief of critical care and trauma surgery at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, described the extensive network of patient care that's helping reduce battlefield deaths and speed up patients' recovery. Casualties are getting medical treatment faster and closer to the point of injury than ever before, Dorlac...

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- Moving wounded American servicemembers from the frontlines in Southwest Asia to hospitals in the United States is no easy task. The effort requires everything from treating patients in forward-deployed locations to airlifting and caring for them as they move from overseas to stateside locations. One Air Force Reserve Command unit involved in this effort is the 445th Airlift Wing here. Since Oct. 10, 2001, U.S. military aircraft have moved more than 26,000 patients from Southwest Asia to Europe, and more than 18,000 of them went on C-141 Starlifters -- most belonging to the...

In battle, one of the hardest challenges is saving the wounded. Medical professionals encounter injuries not normally seen in peacetime, and many times see multiple life-threatening injures requiring immediate treatment on the battlefield. Another problem is moving patients across hot desert sands on bumpy roads in Iraq, which can be logistically challenging and uncomfortable for the patient. And there is always the danger of roadside bombs. To solve these problems, military aeromedical planners developed what is now an efficient medical evacuation system that moves patients from where they were injured to definitive care quickly and safely. Along the way, patients...