Aeromedical Evacuation Flight brings hospital to the wounded

Senior Airman Amber O'Neil, 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight medical technician, prepares straps to attach litter patients on a C-130 prior to a mission at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Airman O'Neil is deployed from the 153rd Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air National Guard. (photo by Staff Sgt. Craig Seals)

Aeromedical Evacuation Flight brings hospital to the wounded

Senior Airman Roy Aguilar (left), critical care air transport team respiratory therapist, and Capt. Jenna Jamison, CCATT intensive care nurse, inventory and prep their equipment aboard a C-130 prior to a mission at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Airman Aguilar and Capt. Jamison are deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. (photo by Staff Sgt. Craig Seals)

Aeromedical Evacuation Flight brings hospital to the wounded

Capt. Chris Capozollo (left), 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight chief nurse, discusses the patient manifest with Army Specialist Renee Castillo, 396th Combat Support Hospital, during a mission to transport wounded from Forward Operating Base Salerno to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan June 5. Capt. Capozollo is deployed from the 153rd Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air National Guard. (photo by Staff Sgt. Craig Seals)

Aeromedical Evacuation Flight brings hospital to the wounded

Staff Sgt. Eric Emmett, 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight medical technician, signals that his litter patient is secure during a mission to transport wounded from Forward Operating Base Salerno to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan June 5. Sergeant Emmett is deployed from the 153rd Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air National Guard. (photo by Staff Sgt. Craig Seals)

Aeromedical Evacuation Flight brings hospital to the wounded

Capt. Jenna Jamison (left), critical care air transport team intensive care nurse, and Senior Airman Roy Aguilar, CCATT respiratory therapist, stabilize a critical patient after loading him on a C-130 bound for Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan June 5. Capt. Jamison and Airman Aguilar are deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. (photo by Staff Sgt. Craig Seals)

Saving servicemembers' lives one flight at a time

Published June 7, 2007
By Staff Sgt. Craig Seals
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Who says doctors don't make house calls anymore? That's exactly what the Airmen of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan do on a daily basis. They bring the hospital to the wounded.

An Aeromedical Evacuation, or AE, crew turns whatever aircraft they are on into a flying hospital. A typical AE crew consists of a Medical Crew Director and two highly trained in-flight medical technicians.

When a severely injured or gravely ill service member must be moved, the AE crews are often augmented with a Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT). When augmented with the CCATT the aircraft is turned from a flying hospital to a flying intensive care unit. A CCATT consists of a physician, intensive care nurse and a respiratory therapist. With both teams combined, they can move patients that otherwise would be too unstable to move to higher levels of care.

"Being on a CCATT is a deployment," said Capt. Jenna Jamison, CCATT intensive care nurse. "One team rotates through for 120 days and one team from Balad rotates every 30 days."

Making a hospital mobile requires a lot of equipment as well as a sense of urgency.

"The seriousness of patient care is higher due to the stress of combat environments," said Tech. Sgt. Andy Baker, 455th EAEF flight medicine technician. "It's a much higher ops tempo when we go out there to get the patients so we have to maintain a more heightened sense of urgency."

"We usually load patients while the engines are still running," said Capt. Chris Capozzolo, 455th EAEF chief nurse. "It's a pretty tactical load and high paced."

While AE and CCATT load and treat injured servicemembers, those are not the only patients requiring treatment and transport.

"We take care of not only our own guys, but contractors, Afghan nationals and enemy injured as well," said Captain Capozzolo.

Treating injured service members gives the AE and CCATT a special sense of pride.

"Taking care of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines is the most important thing we do," said Captain Jamison. "Giving these guys the comfort of knowing we'll get them home is the greatest feeling. They are the best patients in the world."

The sense of pride and satisfaction is one that is shared throughout the CCATT and AE teams whether back at home station or here in a combat theater.

"We get the same sense of fulfillment here, just with a different set of circumstances," said Sergeant Baker. "The appreciation of the patients when we get them the care they need; that's where the feeling comes from."

Still others get that feeling of accomplishment from another source. "Back home we train all the time to do our jobs over here. Now that we're over here we get to work so much more with the patients," said Senior Airman Amber O'Neil, 455th EAEF in-flight Medical Technician. "Our job is so exciting and it's never the same."

Injured service members may be in pain, but they can all rest a little easier knowing that AE and CCATT are keeping their promise to take care of sick and injured members by moving them to higher levels of care or bringing them home using the equipment, skills and sense of urgency they deserve.