Airmen evacuate Haitians to America for medical care

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SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) --  Air Mobility Command Airmen, with the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center here aeromedically evacuated 86 patients from Haiti to the United States for care since Jan. 12.

Aeromedical evacuation planning is accomplished by 618th TACC Airmen at Scott Air Force Base, the lead agency for worldwide air mobility operations.

"Our teams will do anything we can to save lives, which is exactly why we have aeromedical evacuation professionals on our operations floor 24/7,"said Lt. Col Duncan Smith, the chief of the 618th TACC's aeromedical evacuation branch.

A mobile aeromedical staging facility was set up in Haiti to help in disaster relief. A MASF is a completely self-sustaining field hospital with a 13-person staff of medical technicians, nurses and support staff. The MASF staff provides specialized medical care to patients needing aeromedical evacuation. Ideally, patients will have been seen by an initial medical team before being sent to MASF facility.

Medical support for Operation Unified Response come from all over the U.S. including members from the 375th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Scott AFB, the 45th AES at MacDill AFB, Fla., the 94th AES from Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., the 88th Medical Group of Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, the 6th MDG also from MacDill, and the Global Patient Movement Requirements Center of the U.S. Transportation Command.

"Business for us is getting patients to the care they need, no matter what," Colonel Smith said. "In some cases, it means we get to help save lives and you can't beat that feeling."

The 618th TACC staff planned, tasked and provided command-and-control over all of the aeromedical evacuations out of Haiti by AMC aircraft.

Since the earthquake rattled the small country, AMC has flown 231 arrivals into Haiti, moving more than 5,000 tons of cargo into the country and returned more than 4,000 American citizens to the U.S.

(618th Tanker Airlift Control Center Public Affairs contributed to this article.)