Photo By Sgt. Alexander Neely | Sgt. Brinon Rogers, a health care specialist for 2nd Battalion, 501st Aviation...... read more read more
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FORT BLISS, Texas - A flight crew sat in the 2nd Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment hangar, each with contemplative silence written on their face. It was the look of someone waiting for something – anything – to happen.
In the case of these Soldiers, an HH-60L Black Hawk air-medical evacuation flight crew, that something was a call for help.
And then, “Exercise, exercise, exercise!”
The second “exercise” had barely crackled through the speakers of the radio before the aviators were sprinting in different directions. The pilot and medic headed to the flight operations office to confirm grid coordinates and flight patterns, while the co-pilot and crew chief manned the helicopter.
The crew has a strict requirement of 15 minutes, no more, to be airborne in response to a 9-Line medevac request. Buttons are pushed, levers are moved, and the Black Hawk helicopter – stamped with the highly-recognizable medic cross – began to breathe to life like a resuscitated patient. The co-pilot strapped in just as the pilot and crew chief emerged from the hangar door. After all, 15 minutes goes just like that in the golden hour following a traumatic injury when there is the best chance for medical treatment to prevent death.
This is the sort of instantaneous pressure flight medics from Company C, or Lonestar Dustoff, can expect this week, as the unit officially assumes the Fort Bliss air medical evacuation mission formerly conducted by civilian contractors.
“There is an incredible amount of adrenaline when the call comes into the office,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mark Fernandez, a Lonestar Dustoff pilot. “But, we are all trained very well, through classes and exercises, to be able to perform the most efficient way possible.”
Medevac back in Soldier hands
The flight crews will be expected to provide 24/7 aero-medical evacuation support across Fort Bliss’ 1.12 million acres of training areas in Texas and New Mexico 365 days a year. The order was issued by III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas, to most U.S.-based Army installations, after the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, to assume medevac missions similar to those prior to 2003.
“The contractors have provided a great service throughout the years we've been deployed and have done an excellent job,” said Lt. Col. Whitney B. Gardner, 2nd Bn. commander. “Now it is time for our company to perform the mission it is designed to do and take care of Fort Bliss’ Soldiers as the need arises.”
To the untrained eye, the medevac crew’s movements are nervous and spastic. Yet, each Soldier is overly focused, checking and rechecking everything from their uniform to their equipment. It is a process only trained air medevac crews could truly appreciate.
In the air, the Black Hawk cuts through space like a vehicular scalpel, seemingly driven by the urgency of the moment. The medic and crew chief peer out the side windows, confirming location and determining distance to the pilot and co-pilot. Conversations are held through radio, but crackles are no match for the beating of propellers against the wind.
Company C currently has 15 Black Hawks in five platoons with which to transport patients. About 30 percent of the company is composed of medics, while the rest are pilots, crew chiefs and support.
Company C’s aero-medical evacuation services will be dispatched similar to that of the Army EMS/Fire Department. After a 911/emergency call from a training area is placed, the Department of Emergency Services will dispatch the appropriate response services.
Patient lands in sure hands
And then, a left turn. The Black Hawk banks hard to its right, providing a rushing image of endless sand blurred by hundreds of yucca bushes. The pilots push more buttons, pull more levers, and the helicopter straightens out.
There, beyond the windshield and below the nose of the helicopter, is a cluster of buildings, vehicles and people. And somewhere in there lies the patient, a person in need, the one the flight crew has come to save.
“The mission is to get the person who needs our help to the proper location so they can receive aid,” said Fernandez. “The only way this can happen is if our team can work efficiently and safely and properly; reduce the ground time and get the person aid.”
After landing and initially treating the patient, who feigns pain for this exercise, the crew straps him to a stretcher on the helicopter floor. The medic and crew chief have an organic partnership, silently helping one another to aid the patient. From the removal of the patient’s uniform top, to the application of bandages, to the placement of oxygen, the two Soldiers seamlessly work hand-in-hand.
No one mentions the obvious injuries or the faint smell of a failed stomach. No, no one notices, because the four Soldiers are in mind space few can understand – a sort of focused detachment. It’s a beautiful and violent process, one that makes you appreciate the heart of the medevac team.
| Date Taken: | 04.13.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.13.2015 16:26 |
| Story ID: | 159858 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 172 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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