Reservists charge into aeromedical evacuation effort

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jason Tudor
  • Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs
SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  Nerves of steel, the patience of a saint and the ability to forego substantial eating and sleeping for days at a time.

Anyone seeking a job coordinating the aeromedical evacuation of thousands after a major disaster need not apply unless they have those traits. Some dry-erase markers, a telephone and three white boards would not hurt either.

Fortunately for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Defense Department and evacuees to the tune of 9,788 people, Airmen with the Air Force Reserve Command’s 433rd Airlift Wing at nearby Lackland Air Force Base used all these things to run aeromedical evacuation efforts during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Reservists commanded and controlled all aeromedical evacuations out of New Orleans. With 125 airplanes at their disposal, reservists here were ensuring victims of Hurricane Katrina were ferried to care at points across the United States.

And when did those nerves of steel come into place? Quickly, according to Capt. James Baugh. He served as one of a handful of people inside the AE coordination cell. He said he worked on evacuation efforts in other situations, but never with an impact this close to home.

During a “typical” two-hour and 15-minute period, Captain Baugh said they were prepping one airplane, launching another and alerting an additional aircrew. Crews prepared tons of medical equipment, gallons of intravenous fluid and miles of gauze for the missions.

“It was busy,” he said.

The aeromedical evacuation effort took place in several locations, with a total-force effort among active-duty Airmen, guardsmen and reservists moving people away from danger. However, the bulk of the command and control work was done by reservists out of two hangars here.

One hangar served as a staging area where medical technicians organized piles of medical equipment for later flights. Another hangar served as a patient treatment area for incoming evacuees.

From New Orleans to San Antonio, the Air Force Reserve managed the operation. On the ground, Airmen from Lackland and volunteers took over, busing people to one of 31 hospitals in the area.

Surrounded by dozens of ambulances, charter buses and news media satellite trucks, the hangars were ground zero for evacuation efforts. Much of the heavy lifting took place Sept. 1 to 3 during a 51-hour period.

Inside a small office in the staging hangar, coordinators kept track of 125 military and civilian airplanes. A C-130 Hercules did the bulk of aeromedical evacuation work. Commercial aircraft, other military aircraft as well as C-5 Galaxy aircraft from the 433rd AW helped move evacuees away from danger.

Inside a 10-by-12 foot office, nine people crammed together to share three desks. Between putting teams on airplanes, finding buses to move them and getting patients to hospitals, the office buzzed with activity morning to night.

Among them was Master Sgt. Julianna Simmons deployed from March Air Reserve Base, Calif., to work in the aeromedical evacuation coordination cell. Earlier this year, Sergeant Simmons said she finished an exercise called Lifesaver ’05 on the Gulf Coast dealing with similar circumstances to Katrina. She said the stress level, however, was much higher for the real thing.

“We had one phone line, everyone calling in needing to call out. We were getting a delay in information getting missions. New Orleans was getting backed up,” the reservist said. “It was stressful, but we eventually started to get into a groove. I learned I could juggle about 100 things at once.”

One of those 100 things included planes backing up at the New Orleans airport. At one time, C-130s were being sent from here to New Orleans but ended up circling overhead for hours. Some eventually came home. They could not land because of the number of airplanes on the ground and parked on the runway.

At the same time, the flightline at Lackland Air Force Base burgeoned with as many as 87 different airframes -- C-5s, C-130s, C-17 Globemaster IIIs and more. The task saturation made the forgoing of food and sleep perhaps the easiest trait to have.

Meanwhile, reservists were cycling Reserve, Guard and active-duty aeromedical evacuation teams from Minnesota, Mississippi and Texas onto flights. Made up of medical technicians and nurses, these teams provide care to patients while in the air.

Senior Airman Winter Shaler, a flight medic and reservist from the 934th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, worked on one mission. She said the work was overwhelming.

“I think, ‘Hey that could be me.’ You empathize with them and you come together as Americans and get it done,” she said.

Fellow medical technician, squadron mate and reservist Staff Sgt. Bill Lohse agreed. The Minnesotan said he just returned from a deployment in Afghanistan. He saw similarities to that country and his New Orleans experience.

“We landed in New Orleans, looked around and it kind of looked like Afghanistan -- helicopters flying around and rapid deployments,” he said. “It’s different though because we’re in America. You wouldn’t think this kind of situation would happen here, but when it does, it’s nice to know we have these kind of people we can count on.”

Compounding the aeromedical evacuation were other displaced people brought in from New Orleans. Master Sgt. Rob Kusterer, a C-5 flight engineer with the 433rd AW and coordinator for incoming evacuees to San Antonio, said some of the issues he faced were all new.

“At one point, the dogs that sniff for drugs were tiring. We had three dogs, but at one point, we were down to one,” he said. There was also the challenge of moving people who were mentally challenged and those with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Some of these folks would get off the plane and just shut down. We couldn’t move them,” he said.

At one point, reservists accounted for 98 percent of all aeromedical evacuations. As of Sept. 7, that number waned to 80 percent. The need for further medical evacuations dramatically dropped after Sept. 4 because local medics were able to handle most of the patients, but the global aeromedical evacuation system remained on standby if needed, said Col. (Dr.) James Collier, AFRC surgeon general.

Throughout the span of days the 433rd AW championed the aeromedical evacuation efforts, nerves of steel and patience paid off. More than 2,900 people were moved to hospitals from Seattle to San Antonio. Sergeant Lohse summed up the feelings of all the reservists involved.

“It’s the greatest thing we can do -- to help others like this. It’s like sitting around the fire hall. You hear the bell and you go,” he said. “This is the greatest job in the Air Force. I’m glad I’m able to help people.” (Courtesy AFRC News Service)