Airmen enhance Army medical evacuation mission

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tammie Moore
  • U.S. Air Forces Central news team
KANDAHAR AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  Airmen of the 305th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron here have flown more than 300 medical evacuations for coalition forces and Afghan nationals since March as they carry out their mission of saving lives.

Members of the 305th ERQS and their HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters are deployed to Kandahar Air Base to provide the Army assistance with their medical evacuation mission as well as bring enhanced aerial capabilities to the region.

"Once a notification arrives, the crews and maintainers sprint out there, we get the aircraft ready to takeoff ... inside of 10 minutes," said 1st Lt. Brough McDonald, an HH-60 pilot. "When we arrive on scene, we start the assessing the tactical situation, the medical situation and determine what we can do to get in there."

The pilot, deployed from the 305th Rescue Squadron in Tucson, Ariz., is confident in the aircraft's capabilities.

"We can employ this platform aggressively to accomplish the assigned mission," Lieutenant McDonald said. "Whatever the ground commander wants from us, we can do. If they want us to come in super-scary or if they want us to sneak in -- this team can do that. We are really like a Swiss army knife."

The lieutenant, a reservist with more than 160 combat missions under his belt, said he believes the HH-60's diverse capabilities is not what makes it a standout weapon system, but the people inside it.

A typical crew in this role includes two pilots, a gunner, a flight engineer and pararescuemen.

"The flight engineer manages the whole (aircraft) and is probably one of the most critical team members," Lieutenant McDonald said. "When I'm picking up a survivor on a hoist, I can't see him at all; everything I do is based on what the flight engineer is telling me. When we are in the zone, hovering taking small-arms fire with (pararescuemen) and a would-be survivor on the line, he is the one, whether he is a senior airman or a chief master sergeant, who is making decisions -- that is an incredible amount of responsibility."

The group of pararescuemen is deployed in their first Guardian Weapon System role. The weapon system is a scalable forced designed to meet the Department of Defense's personnel recover needs for not only coalition military forces, but also all U.S. contractors and civilians serving oversea. 

Not only have the HH-60 aircrews learned to work together, but also they trained with Army helicopter crews here.

"We fly a lot of dissimilar formations here," Lieutenant McDonald said. "We deployed as a package to pick up a survivor, so it is either us flying with an Army UH-60 or AH-64. Working with different systems has caused some challenges, but the benefit is to the survivor."

Despite the increased capabilities that the HH-60 brings to the mission, the terrain here is hard on the aircraft.

"The terrain presents its own challenges because of the high altitude. Plus it is real hot, so we don't arrive in the zone with the power advantages we would if we were at sea level or in a colder environment. Dust is also a huge factor," Lieutenant McDonald said.

Even with harsh conditions, 305th ERQS Airmen are always ready for a call to action, and the motto "These things we do so that other's may live" sums up the completion of a successful battlefield rescue.

"When everything comes together and you bring someone home, it is a good feeling," Captain Smith said. "You can take stock after a mission, and say 'we made a difference.'"

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