Volunteers carry the weight of war

Published March 31, 2011
By Tech. Sgt. Emily F. Alley
451st AEW public affairs

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- They may be in a war zone, but many Airmen at Kandahar Airfield work in offices similar to the ones they use in the United States. In fact, some deployed personnel are in career fields that dictate they may never step outside the wire, so they volunteer to help those who do.

"I know what I do is important," said Senior Airman Matthew Bryant of his job in vehicle maintenance. "But I'm not out looking for bad guys every day. Some of these guys are."

Volunteers like Airman Bryant said they found working with patients is an opportunity to see a concrete impact, help people. They carry wounded Americans- most often soldiers- who cannot walk for themselves and help them onto the planes that will fly them out of Kandahar.

Some of the patients are conscious and will talk to the volunteers. On March 27, one of the days Bryant volunteered, other patients seemed content to look out the window of the bus, and smiled at the stories volunteers told them on the bus ride to the plane. Some slept.

Lt. Col. Robert Young, reserve historical officer for the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing, also volunteered. On the bus, he leaned over to ask a man on a litter how he was doing. The soldier seemed talkative.

"How long since you've been home, sir?" asked the soldier, who seemed happy to have the conversation.

A regular volunteer of the program, the lieutenant colonel said he will sometimes ask about how the injury happened, he's spoken with patients who were glad to tell their war stories.

"I have children that are same age as these patients," Young described his reason for volunteering. "If my child was laying on a stretcher in Afghanistan, I would want to know that someone was there for them. I would want someone to pat them on the shoulder and tell them it would be alright."

Some volunteers are much younger. Technical Sgt. Katie Hagemeier is the volunteer coordinator, and Noncomissioned Officer in Charge of the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility, and said she's worked with volunteers who were Airmen with a single stripe on their sleeves, to colonels. Most of the volunteers are from the Air Force. She does, however, see contractors or soldiers who volunteer.

"Some do it for very personal reasons," Hagemeier described a soldier who had been badly wounded during his last deployment and was carried out by CASF volunteers. Now that he's returned to Afghanistan, he chose to become a volunteer.

Even when they're not deployed, many also do volunteer work at home. A few cited examples like working in soup kitchens, helping with Special Olympics, or cleaning parks and hiking trails. Sergeant Hagemeier said she does not have problems finding volunteers, but commends the initiative they take to become involved.

"Most will literally walk in the door and say, 'I've heard you do this. How can I help?'" she said.

Then she trains them on how to carry the litters. It's a job she said would not get done without them, since the medical crews are small to begin with and many cannot spare the hours it takes to travel with the litters and wait for the aircraft to load. Then, she said, it would be physically draining for such a small group to repeatedly carry a set of patients, some of whom may weigh several hundred pounds when combined with medical equipment.

The volunteers can then take the patients from the hospital and load them onto what resembles a repurposed school bus, with seats removed and a red cross on the side. They unload the bus on the flight line, and carry the patients up the ramp of a cargo plane, most often a C-130.

"When their jobs don't allow them to get out of their work area very often, this makes them remember why they're here," reflected Sergeant Hagemeier, of the volunteers.

Sergeant Hagemeier said she has enough volunteers that she can comfortably rotate through the group, giving them a break, although she expects they'll be busier as the weather warms. Even in the hot summer, they'll carry those who can't walk for themselves.