Pope aerovac squadron deploys for Hurricane Dean

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POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. (AFPN) --  More than 40 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron Airmen deployed at 11:30  a.m. Aug. 19 to Brownsville, Texas, to set up a Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility at the Brownsville airport in support of Hurricane Dean evacuations.

The team left on a C-17 Globemaster III from Charleston AFB, S.C.  Approximately 10 more 43rd AES members are scheduled to depart later Aug. 19 on a mission currently being scheduled.

This team is made up of several smaller teams with very specific jobs when they arrive. One team will remain at the airport to set up the MASF to care for patients and stabilize them for evacuation.

Two liaison teams will go to hospitals and nursing homes to get the patients regulated into the system and prepare them to relocate. Two crews will fly on the evacuation missions with the patients to provide in-flight care. 

The everyday mission of this group is to provide a trained and equipped force capable of establishing and operating a theater aeromedical evacuation system across the full spectrum of contingencies.

The 43rd AES is no stranger to operations of this nature. They deploy to Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom providing medical support. In 2005, the squadron deployed more than 40 members to the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans in support of Hurricane Katrina relief. They set up an MASF inside the airport and evacuated more than 2,500 people over the course of three days. 

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