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Aeromedical evacuation mission a tribute to inspiring patients

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Kali Gradisha
  • U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines - so many names, so many faces and so many stories to remember. A few, however, inspire pride and a sense of patriotism for members of the 332nd Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight as they transport patients from forward operating bases through Joint Base Balad and on to a better-equipped medical facilities outside the area of responsibility.

Maj. Marty Maddox, a 332nd EAEF flight nurse, recalls a very courageous 23-year-old patient who helped her see that being a flight nurse was her calling. The Soldier had already lost one leg and was in jeopardy of losing the other leg.

"He was missing some of fingers, and we were trying to save his thumb," Major Maddox said. "He was just the bravest young Army Soldier."

The Soldier's mother flew to Germany for her son and was able to get on the flight with him back to the United States.

Major Maddox and the other members of her flight had plenty of opportunity to chat with the Soldier and the 56 other patients on the 10-hour flight.

"We got to know him; we got to know his mom," Major Maddox said. "He cried, I cried, his mom cried.

"That really got to me," she said. "That's when I knew I had gotten into the right line of work - that being a flight nurse was truly going to be something I wanted it to be because we're doing something good, because we're getting these Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines back home.

"I will never forget him," she said of the Soldier she met that day.

Although she has been a nurse in other capacities - working in neonatal, recovery rooms, intensive care units and emergency rooms - for many decades, Major Maddox is relatively new to the aeromedical evacuation mission. She has been a flight nurse for two years.

Before arriving at Joint Base Balad for her current deployment, Major Maddox's first deployment experience as a flight nurse was on a short deployment transporting patients out of the AOR.

A reservist deployed from the 36th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Major Maddox and her medical crew pick up patients from Iraq and Afghanistan, transport some through Germany and take them back to the United States for advanced medical care.

Senior Airman Nicole Caldwell, a 332nd EAEF aeromedical evacuation technician also deployed from the 36th AES at Pope AFB, is on her first deployment in the 23 months she has been in the Air Force.

A single mother of two girls, Airman Caldwell's most memorable mission was being able to fly on Memorial Day.

"Just being able to fly on that day - bringing back wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines - was very rewarding," she said.

But like her fellow medical crewmembers, Airman Caldwell is able to recall a particular patient who made an influence on her and her career as an aeromed technician.

The patient had survived blasts from seven or eight separate improvised explosive devices and suffered from a traumatic brain injury because of the IEDs. He was persistent in getting his boots on the ground, back into the fight with his unit.

"His spirits, of wanting to get patched up and get back out there," were remarkable, said Airman Caldwell.

"He was young," she said. "It kind of hurt a little bit to see that he was so young. But his spirits were just so high, and it makes you love doing this even more."

Seeing things like that aren't easy, nor are they expected to be, but "it's something you just accept as part of your job," the senior airman said.

Senior Master Sgt. Tony Staut has seen a lot in his 17 years as an aeromedical evacuation technician.

"Every mission you fly triggers some kind of a memory or becomes a memory of one patient or another," said the 332nd EAEF superintendent.

For Sergeant Staut, also deployed from the 36th AES at Pope AFB, the greatest memories are with the people he works with and the deployment operations he has supported.

"I can remember several patients specifically," he said.

One patient he knows of only through accounts he heard of the medical crew who flew with the injured service member.

The patient had a traumatic eye injury. Both eyes were severely injured and the theater hospital at Joint Base Balad determined his eyesight could only be salvaged if the patient were transported to a facility in San Antonio, Texas, for surgery.

"I wasn't involved with the flight, but it's a testament to what can happen in this career field and the people I get to work with," he said.

The patient flew nonstop on a C-17 Globemaster III plane from Balad to San Antonio with a double set of aeromedical evacuation technicians and aircrew pilots and loadmasters.

The patient was in surgery within 20 hours of sustaining his injuries in Iraq.

"That patient, that Marine, will be able to look upon his children for the rest of his life because of the capability we have here," Sergeant Staut said.

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