CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE COBRA, Iraq – The golden hour—it is known to service members and military medical personnel as the window in which care must be provided to a wounded individual requiring urgent surgical attention.
To ensure that service members’ medical needs are met at remote locations across U.S. Division-North, medical personnel reallocated two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters Contingency Operating Site Cobra, Iraq, April 16.
Elements of 40th Combat Aviation Brigade make up the team of air crews, medics, and maintenance personnel reassigned to ensure timely medical care for injured service members.
“These assets have been moved to make sure we maintain coverage of Soldiers located at Cobra and all of the check points within the combined security mechanism in Diyala province,” said Maj. Anthony Borowski, Company B, Division Special Troops Battalion, 4th Infantry Division.
The air assets realigned to Cobra came about as a result of the Secretary of Defense’s plan to ensure critically injured service members can be transported to surgical care within a one hour timeframe from anywhere in Iraq, said Lt. Col. Mary Krueger, U.S. Division-North surgeon.
In the past, medical personnel on the ground at the remote locations mitigated any possible time delays with on-site service for wounded personnel.
“We have medical teams, and trained combat lifesavers in numerous locations in Iraq, which helped increase the survivability for troops with care until air assets could arrive to transport them to follow-on care,” said Krueger.
More than 540 U.S. service members currently occupy the operational environment in Diyala province, where COS Cobra and several CCPs are located.
In the past, if a U.S. service member’s point of injury occurred in the vicinity of COS Cobra, air medical evacuation assets had to be dispatched from and return to Joint Base Balad, where the theater hospital is located.
This process took slightly longer than the ‘golden’ one hour required for service members to receive care for injuries requiring urgent surgical attention.
“The arrival of the MEDEVAC crews greatly increases force protection for our Soldiers in northeastern Diyala province,” said Lt. Col. Joel Miller, Squadron Executive Officer for 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.
“This has a significant impact for the area; it provides medical care directly to the service members in Diyala province that were previously just outside the window of coverage for the golden hour,” Borowski added. “Now we can quickly retrieve these patients, place them in our aircraft and provide in-route medical care all the way to Joint Base Balad until they get to the theater hospital.”
Borowski, who serves as the evacuation planner for U.S. Division-North, added that having the helicopters located at COS Cobra instead of JBB is a positive situation which brings the helicopters closer to soldiers in remote locations.
“The moving of the medical air assets to Cobra essentially cuts the amount of time it takes for an air MEDEVAC to get a casualty to a facility where they can receive appropriate medical care in half,” said Sgt. 1st Class Edgardo Hernandez, the current flight operations noncommissioned officer in charge, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd AAB, 25th Inf. Div.
The reallocation of MEDEVAC helicopters to forward bases plays a crucial role in ensuring all U.S. Division-North Soldiers remain under the one hour umbrella of coverage for air transportation to the nearest medical facility, especially at this stage of Operation New Dawn, said Borowski.
Borowski said even as bases transition to Iraqi control and U.S. soldiers move throughout U.S. Division-North, MEDEVAC crews will always be ready to provide care.
“This move plays a pivotal role in the broader scope of things,” he said. “It is a significant part of the withdrawal process from Iraq.”
| Date Taken: |
04.16.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
04.22.2011 12:51 |
| Story ID: |
69183 |
| Location: |
CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE COBRA, IQ |
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65 |
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0 |
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This work, COS Cobra receives aerial assets to ensure timely medical care for troops, by SSG David Strayer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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