315th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
1/3/2013 - JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICHAM, Hawaii -- Moving wounded heroes off the battlefield to hospitals sometimes thousands of miles away is no easy task, but the 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron makes it look easy.
These flying medical pros are responsible for saving lives and train hard for this unique Air Force Reserve mission.
"It's a complex mission and requires long hours just to be familiar with how we do things," said Lt. Col. Paula Frasier as she leads her team on an overseas training mission to the Pacific. "Nineteen hour days are not unusual and dealing with that can be stressful."
Most people think about hospitals as big buildings where medical arts are practiced. Members of the 315 AES think about hospitals as aircraft flying though the sky at thirty-five thousand feet.
24-year-old Senior Airman Storm Ford is new to the squadron and cutting his teeth as a medical technician learning from those who have done the job for years.
"Today I am going to be role playing as a patient and we will be running some different scenarios," he said preparing to lie flat on a combat litter.
On missions like this one, members of the squadron are tested on various elements of patient care sometimes acting out medical emergencies.
These Charleston-based AES crews have to be qualified to do their job on various types of aircraft like the C-17, C-130 and KC-135. Each aircraft is unique but they all share a common goal of transporting wounded. Throughout the training mission nurses rotate the responsibility of being the Medical Crew Director. The MCD is in charge of the AES element onboard the aircraft. Along with the medical care they give, these Airmen have to be able to handle in flight emergencies.
With 26 years of experience, Fraiser has seen it all, but one mission stands out in particular.
"Patients were stacked four high," she said recalling a mission from Ramstein Air Base, Germany to Joint Base Andrews, Md. "We had 82 patients with a crew of nine including a lot of orthopedic injuries and antibiotic patients. There were so many, sometimes it was hard to get to them."
The speed of moving a wounded warrior has changed over the last few decades thanks to heavy airlift and teams like this one who stand ready to go. That speed has saved countless lives especially when it comes to critical care.
"If a patient is critical, a 'C-CAT' (Critical Care Air Transport) team will be aboard just for that one person," said Senior Master Sgt. J.R. May. "That includes a doctor, nurse and repertory technician."
Capt. Dinah Lewis, one of the squadron's flying nurses, explained that some injuries are not seen on the outside.
"We have to be able to deal with psych patients who sometimes might get out of control," she said while preparing her checklist. "We will talk to them to calm the situation but if it gets out of control, we can restrain a patient."
Lewis noted that if patients are restrained in flight, they have to be monitored every fifteen minutes, something they also practiced on this mission.
Like any job in the Air Force Reserve, these men and women are highly focused on their mission especially knowing that they touch so many lives personally.
"Sometimes we develop personal relationships," said Fraiser. "Patients will come back and thank us for helping them."
Soldiers can experience great hardship on the battlefield and these aeromedical evacuation personnel bring a human touch to the job.
"Often times we make cookies to give them a taste of home when they come on the airplane," explained Fraiser.
Deployments far from home come with the job and units stage out of places like Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations around the world. Flights are typically long with eight-hour legs not too uncommon. Dealing with these long flights is one of the reasons AES crews do overseas training.
Jumping time zones is tough on the body and lugging pounds of equipment and personal baggage on and off the aircraft can take a toll. These amazing medical crews do it day in and day out highly dedicated to their patients and the Air Force.
Whether as a nurse, doctor, medical technician or any of the other jobs which make up an Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, these Air Force Reserve troops earn their wings every time they step foot on an aircraft.
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