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Wright-Patt reservists evacuate patients from Rita’s path

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Charles K. Miller
  • 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
A C-141 aircraft from the 445th Airlift Wing here airlifted 59 patients to safety from Beaumont, Texas, Sept. 23 before Hurricane Rita slammed the Gulf Coast. The crew and plane returned to Wright-Patt late that night.

“We were the last plane, period, out of Beaumont,” said Lt. Col. Steve Bastian, one of the three pilots from the wing’s 356th Airlift Squadron who flew the evacuation mission. “The (Southeast Texas Regional Airport) and tower were actually closed; however, we were given permission to take off and were monitored by Houston.”

The Air Force Reserve Command plane evacuated the patients to Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., from where they were taken to Atlanta area hospitals and nursing care facilities. Forty-two of the patients were on litters. Most of the patients were elderly from Beaumont area nursing homes, but three of them were newborn babies, including one in an incubator.

“Some of the evacuees were in their 90s, some were 1-day-old babies,” the colonel said. “Many of the folks we evacuated were in pretty rough shape.

“We evacuated two women who had their home burn to the ground and literally had nothing left except their two dogs,” the colonel said.

According to Colonel Bastian, local doctors had performed c-sections on near-term pregnant women who were expected to go into labor during or right after the hurricanes arrival. The mothers, their newborns and the other patients were safely evacuated thanks to the response by Air Force and civilian medical teams, the colonel said.

Six C-17s from Altus AFB, Okla., and three C-5s from Lackland AFB, Texas, and Travis AFB, Calif., were at the airport when the 445th AW plane arrived. None of the planes were left when the C-141 took off with its patients.

“We were the only aircraft equipped to carry litter patients,” Colonel Bastian said.
He said the other planes took patients that could walk and were not in need of constant medical attention.

About 200 military and civilian medical people met the C-141 when it landed at Dobbins ARB after a 90-minute flight.

“There were two life-flight helicopters and maybe two dozen ambulances there,” the colonel said. “The Georgia National Guard, the Air Force reservists and all the civilians working together was truly impressive. It was like a machine.”

This was a repeat flight into a hurricane area for Maj. (Dr.) Brad Goldman of the 445th Aeromedical Staging Squadron, who served as the flight doctor. He had flown to Louisiana a few weeks earlier after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. This time the doctor arrived just before the storm.

“We had time pressures this time because the winds were building up quickly,” Major Goldman said. “The patients had to be loaded quickly and safely. We made sure no one was left behind.”

But that was only one of the challenges for the major and his crew of seven from the 445th AES.

Onboard were nine critical-care patients, and some of them needed ventilators, which were not available.

“We had to manually ventilate them during the entire flight,” Major Goldman said.
Manually ventilating a patient is not common practice and not as effective as a ventilator machine. However, the procedures went successfully, and the patients arrived at Dobbins without incident.

Flying conditions in and around Beaumont were not good because of air turbulence, but the patients had a fairly smooth ride once they flew from the storm area, said Colonel Bastian.

Oddly, the worst weather the crew experienced was a huge thunderstorm near Cincinnati on the return flight to Wright-Patterson with no patients aboard. (AFRC News Service)