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CAMP STRIKER — Over the last week, the Multi-National Division - Center combat aviation brigade has provided valuable support to the Iraqi Security Forces who are battling Shia extremists in the al Hillah area. More than 100 medical evacuation missions have been conducted to get ISF and civilians immediate medical care. Capt. Michael Kelly, aero-medical evacuation helicopter team leader with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, flies MEDEVAC missions south of al Hillah and toward al Kut, in areas where fighting between ISF and criminal groups have picked up in recent days. “We assist enemy, Iraqi Army and Iraqi...

CAMP STRIKER — Aero-medical evacuation crews from Task Force Marne faced down enemy gunfire to deliver five injured Soldiers to safety Jan. 18. The MEDEVAC crews from Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were called in when a patrol of Strykers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division was attacked. The Black Hawk helicopters flew to the site only to find that the easiest place to land, the road the Stryker vehicles were on, had not been cleared of possible improvised explosive devices. The MEDEVAC crews were unable to contact the ground...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2007 – Days after deploying here, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Stephen Thackery saw firsthand the cost of the Taliban’s war on the Afghan people and responded as he was trained -- by saving lives. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Stephen Thackery, a medic with the 33rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, stands by one of the squadron's HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Dec. 29, 2007. Since February 2006, Air Force HH-60s have been flying alongside Army helicopters to help provide medical evacuation throughout Afghanistan. Photo by Capt. Michael Meridith, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

USS RONALD REAGAN, At sea (NNS) -- Sailors from USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), and the pilots and aircrew of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Four (HS-4) rescued a teenage girl Dec. 15 who suffered a ruptured appendix while aboard a cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean. The girl, a 14 year-old from Albion Ill., had been experiencing abdominal pains while aboard the Dawn Princess. The Bermuda-flagged vessel was located off the coast of southern Baja California, Mexico and was approximately 550 miles away from Ronald Reagan when they issued the distress call late Saturday evening. "It's a great example of the...

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, Nov. 27, 2007 – “Medevac! Medevac! 2nd Up.” As the call comes over the radio, the living room of the pilots, crew chiefs and medics of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, springs to life. Members of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, perform a preflight check on the Black Hawk helicopter the team will use for the day. The preflight inspection begins at 6 a.m. each day to ensure the aircraft is ready to go when the medical evacuation company receives a call. Photo by Pfc. Monica K. Smith, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

Army News video: Flying hospitals?TRENTON, Ontario – C-17 used in medical evacuations.

Sgt. Scott McDonald, a crew chief with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, performs a maintenance check on a UH-60 Blackhawk. McDonald and his fellow Soldiers provide air medical evacuation support for much of Northern Iraq. U.S. Army courtesy photo MEDEVAC Unit Stays on Alert to Save Injured Comrades This air ambulance company’s primary job is to respond quickly whenever there is a call to evacuate or transport an injured person. By Spc. Daniel Bearl 25th Combat Aviation Brigade Public Affairs TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb. 8, 2007 -- Just off the flight line at Contingency...

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2006 – A U.S. medical evacuation helicopter carrying an injured Afghan child came under attack with small-arms fire Aug. 1 in Afghanistan’s Zabul province, U.S. military officials said. The incident happened just days after media reports indicated Taliban leaders were urging followers to target U.S. and coalition medical personnel and clergy, officials said. Army Col. Michael Rose, Task Force Falcon and 10th Combat Aviation Brigade commander, called the attack a senseless and cowardly act. “This crew risked their lives to save this little girl, and the Taliban response to that was to try to shoot down an...

This article first ran in The American Spectator's February 2006 issue. LOOK AT THE FRONT PAGE of any major U.S. newspaper or the evening news on cable and network television and you'd think Iraq really was another Vietnam. All you hear about are kidnappings, beheadings, and suicide bombings. Every death in Iraq -- be it U.S., Coalition, or civilian -- is reported as if it were the assassination of Lincoln or Kennedy. Of course, while every combat death is an individual tragedy, the U.S. is making slow but steady progress in Iraq. We're training Iraqi forces to police their own...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2006 – The Air Force's aeromedical evacuation system is unlike any system that's ever been fielded and has contributed greatly to the joint service team, the Air Force surgeon general said here today. Since the war on terror began, the Air Force has moved more than 31,000 patients back to the U.S. for treatment and has saved countless lives, Air Force Lt. Gen. (Dr.) George Peach Taylor Jr. said at the State of the Military Health System 2006 Annual Conference. "When you couple an expeditionary medical team with a great air evacuation system, miracles can happen," he...

FORT DETRICK, Md. (Army News Service, Jan. 10, 2006) – Crucial equipment to help wounded Soldiers in Iraq has been fielded over the past five months, thanks to a new system of communication between medical units in theater and experts here. Anticipating what materiel the Army's medical professionals need before they deploy is one of the missions of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. Now the command has a system in place that lets Army medical units tell the command what they need even after they've deployed. By tagging along as a medical expert on the Army Materiel...

12/28/2005 - PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Ore. (AFPN) -- More than 50 years after it entered the Air Force, aircrews are still finding ways to increase the capabilities of the KC-135 Stratotanker. Ten reservists from the 939th Air Refueling Wing here and four the 349th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., demonstrated the airplane has valuable medical-evacuation capabilities. The team practiced transporting patients with battlefield injuries during a three-day mission to Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe Bay. The base is home to the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force. The medevac mission is just a few years old for the...

Copter Crashes in River; 2 Die Craft Hit Something, Survivor Tells Rescuers Authorities resumed their search this morning for one of two crew members who police said died when a medical evacuation helicopter crashed into the Potomac River late last night near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Firefighters and police rescued one man from the water and recovered a single body just after the helicopter went down shortly after 11 p.m. several hundred yards off the National Harbor development in Prince George's County. Authorities said they believed a third crew member, whose body has not been recovered, was dead. The...

RESCUE TEAMS BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 - For days, an unnatural quiet had settled on the Army's 45th Medical Company, one of four airborne medical evacuation units supporting 130,000 American troops in Iraq. Little was heard of the three rings on the radios carried by the standby crews for the Black Hawk helicopters, signaling casualties requiring urgent airlift after a bomb or an ambush or a firefight somewhere out in the 125-degree heat of the Iraqi summer. But the dog days of August, and the long hours of watching James Bond movies and Nascar races on the Pentagon's TV channel,...

 Lonestar Dustoff MEDEVAC supports Marines in IraqSubmitted by: 3d Marine Aircraft WingStory Identification Number: 200443071358Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte AL ASAD, Iraq  (April 30, 2004) -- The Marine lay in the Army medical evacuation helicopter while an Army flight medic went to work stabilizing his broken leg. He thought about the rocket-propelled grenade that had hit his leg, and about why it hadn't exploded when it hit him. Staff Sgt. Bryan P. Resh, flight medic, Army 507th Medical Company (Air Ambulance), also thought about the Marine's situation, while he continued to work on the leg. On one hand,...

 HMM-161 fights for lives in IraqSubmitted by: 3d Marine Aircraft WingStory Identification Number: 20044107552Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte AL TAQADDUM AIR BASE, Iraq (April 10, 2004) -- The two weary but light-hearted crew chiefs lounged around in the CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter that is referred to as a "Phrog." They were in "alert 30" status - meaning that if a call came, the helicopter would be in the air in under 30 minutes. One of the chiefs casually looked out the window to see their other pilot beating feet towards the chopper at breakneck speed. They just got...

CJTF-7 Public AffairsBAGHDAD, IraqRelease #040112gAnti-coalition forces violate law of war in attacks RAMADI, Iraq – On two separate occasions within four days in the vicinity of Fallujah anti-Coalition forces have staged attacks that violate the Law of War concerning medical transports and medical facilities. On Thursday, Jan. 8, an American UH-60A “Blackhawk” medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopter near Fallujah crashed after it was hit by enemy fire. The Geneva Convention specifically states in Article 21, “medical vehicles shall be respected and protected.” Protocol I of Article 26, which is accepted as customary international law, extends this protection to medical aircraft recognized...

<p>ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — A clearly marked medevac helicopter crashed, killing nine American soldiers near Fallujah yesterday, even as the U.S.-led occupation authority readied prisoners for release as part of a "goodwill" gesture toward its critics.</p> <p>Military officials said they still were investigating the cause of the crash, but a witness told the Associated Press that he saw a rocket hit the tail of the Black Hawk copter, which clearly was marked with a red cross.</p>