Reconstructing lifelines: Airmen rebuild first aid kits for AOR

Maj. Tony Marshall, a volunteer from the 379th Expeditionary Operations Group, pulls off the red tab that signifies an unused individual first aid kit, to check for expired items, Aug. 24. Marshall is deployed from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Eric Summers Jr.)

Reconstructing lifelines: Airmen rebuild first aid kits for AOR

Published Sept. 9, 2011
By Senior Airman Eric Summers Jr
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- While the motto "So others may live" may be used by highly-trained rescue professionals across the military, it's not far off the mark either for a group of volunteers at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.

Although the volunteers are a motley crew gathered from units around the base, they all must maintain an attention to detail that could eventually save a life on the battlefield.

Twice a week on average the group gets together to check - and restock if necessary- individual first aid kits, known as IFAKs, which are used throughout the Area of Responsibility. The base supplies the entire U.S. Central Command AOR with IFAKs, according to Col. William Tyra, 379th Expeditionary Medical Group commander.

"We brief the volunteers that their attention to detail is essential to make sure there are four components in each IFAK," said the Mount Sterling, Ky., native. "[The IFAKs] will go downrange and with folks out on convoys who are in harm's way and could potentially save a life."

The IFAKs contain a tourniquet, combat gauze, dressings, bandages, gloves and tape, among other items which help provide the first-tier of care on the battlefield. Because these items have shelf-lives between two and four years, each kit must be inspected to ensure its serviceability, according to Senior Airman Joseph Rossilli, 379th EMDG IFAK coordinator.

Volunteers at an IFAK "party," as they're known, can repack anywhere from 1,200 to 1,600 kits in a two-hour period.

"Basically we're using the manning from this base to repack large quantities of IFAKs," said the Detroit native, deployed from Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. "Each base could repack their own, but they can only do so many. We're sending them out to the other bases to save them man-hours," he added.

It may be called a "party," but the seriousness is not lost on the volunteers, according to Airman 1st Class Cheyenne Anguita, 379th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron defender.

"I'm doing it just in case the troops downrange get hurt or injured, you don't want them to have faulty materials," said the Phoenix, Ariz., native deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah. "If [something] happened to me and I was stuck in a bad situation, I would want the materials to be good."

Tyra agrees.

"[Volunteering is] what we do as a force," he said. "People like to get out and see a different aspect of the mission, and they understand the importance of what it is they're doing and the significance behind it -- this is really life saving work."

The repacking "parties" are demand driven by the end-user and produced 5,000 IFAKs in August alone.

"The ability to walk in, sign your name and be handed an IFAK that you know was certified by hand and that someone actually went through every item to make sure it was good - I think that's almost priceless," Rossilli said. "If it was your IFAK, you would go through it because you never know when you could be using it for yourself or your best friend next to you - I think that means a lot."