U.S. military delivers medicals supplies to Vietnamese soldiers critically injured in helicopter crash

by Master Sgt. Matthew McGovern
Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs

7/24/2014 - JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii  -- 

The U.S. military delivered 200 jars of burn cream to Vietnamese soldiers critically injured in a helicopter crash near Hanoi, July 7.

The MI-171 helicopter was on a parachute training flight near Hanoi when it went down with 21 crew and special forces soldiers, killing 16, three died later and two remain in critical condition at a hospital in Hanoi.

The Pacific Air Forces Surgeon General Office, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, and the U.S. Pacific Command J5 Southeast Asia Policy Division at Camp Smith, Hawaii, received the urgent request from the Vietnam Embassy July 16, seeking assistance for the purchase and delivery of additional medicine to Military National Institute of Burns (NIB) in Hanoi, Vietnam, where the soldiers are being treated.

"As a physician, I'm always grateful for the opportunity to assist in the healing process," said Lt. Col. Cecili Sessions, PACAF Surgeon's Office international health specialist. "As an International Health Specialist, I'm grateful that our team was able to support our Vietnamese military medical counterparts in caring for their injured."

Sessions consulted with dermatologists at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, to open lines of communication regarding the recommended topical treatment. 

While Chief Master Sgt. Melanie Dolzanie, PACAF SG medical logistics functional manager, was working to locate a pharmaceutical distributor, Col. Tuan Ton from PACOM J5, guided the Vietnamese defense attaché in Washington DC through the process of procurement. This collective effort acquired the quantity and type of burn cream requested which arrived in Hawaii the next day from the east coast.

"I'm really glad we were able to come through for them," Dolzanie said. "It's important that we build strong relationships now so if we ever need to help or support each other in the future we have worked out the challenges."

According to Ton, who made the shipment arrangements, the first shipment of 36 jars was expedited by commercial air to Army Maj. Jacky Ly, Chief of the U.S. Office of Defense of Cooperation in Hanoi.  He then personally delivered the urgently needed cream to the Director of the NIB. 

The second shipment of 164 jars arrived in Vietnam two days later via a C-17 Globemaster III from the 15^th Wing at JBPH-Hickam, Hawaii.

"It took a lot of teamwork to make it happened; I am glad to know that the patients were immediately treated with this cream," Ton said.  "Indeed, it was a terrible accident but it brought the two countries closer together, particular in military medicine cooperation."