MacDill medivac crews hone life-saving skills aboard KC-135

by Senior Airman Adam Borgman
927th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

7/21/2014 - MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Florida  -- Members of the 45th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron here completed a three-day training mission July 20 to maintain their currency on the KC-135 Stratotanker.

The 13-member team accomplished multiple scenarios including an inflight emergency where a patient was succumbing to altitude sickness and another patient experiencing heart palpitations.

"We accomplished a lot of training this weekend, including some scheduled evaluations and some no-notice check rides to test our member's skills and abilities without warning," said Master Sgt. Darryl Ford, 45th AES senior enlisted evaluator.

One of the members who received a no-notice evaluation was Master Sgt. Jarrard Mack.

"Providing care to patients at 35,000 feet brings a unique set of challenges and the medical and aircraft emergency evaluations we received this weekend prepares us for real word missions while maintaining our medical readiness," Mack said.

Each of the medical professionals on this mission had a specific role, which fulfilled a quarterly training requirement.

The primary mission of the KC-135 Stratotanker is air-to-air refueling, but when these nurses and medical technicians need to transport injured service members to safety, the tanker can quickly be converted into a mobile hospital. In addition to the KC-135, the members of the 45th AES must be universally qualified on the C-130 and C-17 aircraft.

Several AES members on this training mission have served on multiple deployments overseas, and many just recently returned home. Their experiences are both rewarding and humbling, according to Tech. Sgt. Monica Eastman, 45th AES.

"Over the years we have increased the patient survival rate to 99 percent, primarily because evacuation missions that used to take months now takes days," Eastman said. "As a team we have probably touched over 300 lives during our deployments, but we are not the heroes, we are just doing our job to bring the real heroes home to their families".