Team effort brings America’s wounded troops home Published Oct. 25, 2005 By Tech. Sgt. Charles Miller 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- It takes a total force effort to care for and move wounded American servicemembers from the frontlines in Southwest Asia to hospitals in the United States. The tasks includes everything from treating patients in forward operating locations to airlifting and caring for them as they move from overseas to stateside locations. One Air Force Reserve Command unit heavily involved in this effort is Wright-Patterson’s 445th Airlift Wing. Since Oct. 10, 2001, U.S. military aircraft have moved more than 26,000 patients from the Middle East to Europe and more than 18,000 of them went on C-141 aircraft, most of them belonging to the 445th AW. Those missions continue today with wing aircrews flying to the Middle East four times a week and to and from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, four times a week. While wing crews are in the front flying the airplanes, other reservists are in back of the aircraft caring for patients or on the ground shuttling the injured to waiting aircraft or ground transportation. At Andrews AFB, Md., some 400 miles from home, there’s never a typical day for the 20 reservists from Wright-Patterson’s 445th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. One day might bring 100 wounded on several planes arriving from Ramstein Air Base, Germany; the next the need to launch planes with critical care patients bound for hospitals elsewhere in the States. “The most important people in any day for all of us here are the patients,” said Maj. James Crowe, officer in charge of the reservists working in mission management. Major Crowe and his team assess what the patients’ needs are, what special care they might need, where they are coming from, where they are going to and how they will be transported. Some of the critically wounded and seriously ill have a specialized medical team travel with them. The team includes a doctor, nurse and a respitiory therapist who can normally treat up to three critical patients. People who don’t see what’s happening on the flightline usually don’t know how well the Air Force is taking care of the wounded said the major. “There might be a C-17 coming here from Ramstein or even flying directly to San Antonio (Texas) carrying just one critically wounded soldier,” said Major Crowe. “No expense is being spared.” At Andrews on the morning of July 12, the mission is uploading and transporting patients onto a KC-135 and a C-130. The KC-135 is an Andrews’ based Air Force Reserve plane and the C-130 is a West Virginia Air National Guard plane. One plane will head west, the other south. One important duty of the 445th AES reservists is moving the wounded and ill from hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area and sending them – when they have recovered enough – to medical facilities closer to their homes. Also, they move patients to other military medical facilities across the United States where their special needs can be met. Soldiers coming from Southwest Asia with severe burns are taken Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Staff Sgt. Katina Anderson, aeromedical evacuation technician, reported to the 445th AES cell at Andrews almost directly from the desert. Her leave time went quickly, but she was eager to return to work. “This is the best job in the Air Force, and I would do this job forever if they’d let me,” the sergeant said. “I got an email while over there about this assignment. You gotta love it.” The duty at Andrews is similar to what the sergeant encountered overseas. The biggest changes occurred after leaving Wright-Patterson. Although the majority of aeromedical evacuations are done on the C-141, members of the team are able to work on a variety of aircraft such as C-130s, C-17s and KC-135s. “We’re all multi-certified to fly on all the different planes,” said Sergeant Anderson, who served three tours in the Middle East. “The patient care and equipment is the same on any aircraft we fly. We load the same things no matter which plane we’re on.” The reservists and the aircraft from Ohio based C-141 wing have been busy supporting the Global War on Terrorism. Since October 2001, they have transported more than 68,000,000 tons of war material and logged more than 45,000 flying hours, more than twice the anticipated number of flying hours. Master Sgt. Mary Hannon, another reservist in the 445th AES, returned home after several weeks of missions and told daughter about an experience she had with some patients and passengers. “I told her about getting five hugs from people on this particular mission,” the sergeant said. “I was hugged by an Iraqi national and a German citizen and his wife, amongst others. I told her how cool it was for them to thank me for the care we gave them on the flight from Germany. “My daughter asked me: ‘Don’t you get it, Mom?’ and I asked her what she meant. She said, ‘Mom, you are doing God’s work.’”