Photo By Jason W. Edwards | Air Force Maj. Amber Hadjis, En Route Critical Care Pilot Unit manager, and Col. (Dr.)...... read more read more
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Aug. 28, 2025 – Service members from several units participated in a medical air transport training flight, Aug. 21.
Members of the 59th Medical Wing’s Critical Care Air Transport Teams flew alongside the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Flight Team, the Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 137th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, and Brooke Army Medical Center’s 559th Aerospace Medicine Squadron in a Validated Assessment Program for Operational Readiness (VAPOR) Critical Care Air Transport training flight with the help of the 56th Air Refueling Squadron from Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
According to the Air Force Medical Service, CCATTs supplement standard aeromedical evacuation aircrew when critically ill or injured patients require continuous monitoring, stabilization, or complex care while in-transit to a medical treatment facility - usually to get a higher level of medical care.
CCAT Teams are highly specialized and are typically comprised of three people – physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists.
CCATT members are experienced in the care of critically ill or injured patients with multisystem trauma, head injuries, shock, burns, respiratory failure, multiple organ failure, and other life-threatening complications.
The training flight, conducted aboard a KC-46A Pegasus and taking off from JBSA-Lackland’s Kelly Field, helps members remain current and ready to execute real-world CCAT missions.
The Vapor Trails program is a quarterly medical readiness exercise, which allows CCAT Teams and aeromedical evacuation specialists to conduct live training flights, simulating real-world patient care and transport scenarios.
“The Vapor Trails program allows us to train in a realistic environment that few CCAT teams across the Air Force are able to take advantage of,” said Col. (Dr.) Terence Lonergan, Brooke Army Medical Center’s Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation director and medical director for the CCATT Pilot Unit. “As deployment tempo has slowed over the last decade, fewer CCATT members have actual experience flying on aircraft.”
The live-flight training has proven invaluable to CCATT members.
“This training prepares CCATT members to deliver intensive care while in flight,” said Tech. Sgt. Charley Smith, 59th Medical Wing En Route Critical Care Pilot Unit noncommissioned officer in charge. “Unlike a hospital setting, we must manage critical patients in an aircraft where space, resources, and conditions are limited. Training simulates these unique challenges, so we are fully mission ready.”
Smith maintains that flying introduces real-world variables such as vibration, noise, lighting, and limited mobility. These variables are difficult to replicate in a classroom or simulation lab setting. Experiencing and adapting to those challenges in training ensures team members are prepared to navigate them safely during real missions.
“You have to meet real world time hacks of loading, takeoff, etc.,” added Maj. Amber Hadjis, 59th Medical Wing En Route Critical Care Pilot Unit manager. “The teams also feel and deal with the noise and stressors of flight.”
The 59th Medical Wing has 28 CCAT Teams. Team members return to advanced training every three years to revalidate but require sustainment training more frequently to remain current and mission ready. The VAPOR program allows teams to fly live training flights – usually quarterly.
“We always learn something new, especially with the K-46 – the aircraft we flew on,” said Hadjis. “You can apply that knowledge to a real-world mission and how you’d want to configure aircraft, load patients, where team members should sit or be placed to monitor patients during takeoff and landing.”
According to Lonergan, teams would historically go for validation training every three years at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in Cincinnati, where they would participate in a live training flight.
“However, our experience has shown that this isn't adequate. Having a currency platform where you can actually fly the mission is invaluable, because in reality there's nothing like actually training on an aircraft,” said Lonergan, who has flown on more than 70 live CCAT missions. “You must experience the environment and feel the forces involved with this type of mission to really appreciate it.”
Lonergan went on to describe the importance of being able to train with the KC-46.
“The KC-46 is a relatively new aircraft in the CCATT world,” he said. “It has been used on a number of occasions in the Pacific, but very few teams have experience with it.”
Hadjis stressed the importance of the training for CCAT members.
“(The) biggest takeaway we get is that CCATT members find this training very valuable,” she said. “Many members who participate have never flown before and getting a live training flight before they go through the training pipeline or deploy has been very helpful!”
| Date Taken: | 08.28.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.28.2025 14:51 |
| Story ID: | 546820 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 226 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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