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AE teams ready to go anytime, anywhere

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Craig Seals
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  Being on an aeromedical evacuation team means bringing the hospital to the wounded. But how do they make sure that capability is maintained 24/7? By having four different teams ready to go at a moment's notice.

The 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight has four, 3-person teams consisting of a nurse and two medical technicians. At any given time, one of these teams is on alert status.

Prior to being put on alert status, an AE team is given 12 hours of crew rest. Once those 12 hours are up, their alert status begins for the next 48 hours.

"We have to sign out and let our command know where we are at all times during those 48 hours," said Capt. Michelle Mulberry, 455th EAEF flight nurse. "Once we are alerted, we have an hour to respond. Sometimes, if the mission is urgent, we have 15 minutes to be ready."

Once alerted and ready to go, the team loads the aircraft with the necessary equipment for their mission. That mission could take them anywhere around Afghanistan.

"We're staged out of Bagram, but we fly all over Afghanistan and sometimes into Kyrgyzstan as well," said Capt. Mulberry. "We will go wherever they need us."

Once at their destination, the AE team is met by an ambulance carrying either ambulatory or litter patients, or sometimes both.

"Ambulatory patients are ones who need our care, but can pretty much move on their own," said Master Sgt. Theresa Sheheen, 455th EAEF medical technician. "Litter patients are on litters and need to be carried and secured on the aircraft."

Once all patients have been secured on the aircraft and the AE team ensures the patients are as comfortable as they can be, it's time to keep moving.

"At times, the missions make me feel very emotionally vulnerable. It's difficult to see some of the injuries and imagine how they will change that patient's life," said Sergeant Sheheen. "On the flip side, it is very rewarding to know that I am doing something, no matter how small, to make that patient a little more comfortable."

Once the aircraft arrives back at Bagram, it's met by an ambulance and medical personnel from the Craig Joint Theater Hospital to take the patients from there.

After the patients have been transferred off the aircraft, the medical equipment is unloaded and it's back to the AE shop.

Paperwork is completed, crews are debriefed and some have a chance to reflect on their day's accomplishments.

"This job is the most rewarding job I have ever done. I work in an ER at home and nothing compares to what we do here," said Capt. Mulberry. "I feel like we are such a small part of a big war, and the least I can do is help the wounded get one step closer to home."

Another mission complete, another 12 hours of crew rest, another 48 hours of alert. Just another day.