Balad medics perform critical mission

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jim Randall
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Evacuation team members brace themselves against the rotor wash of a Blackhawk helicopter as it lands, stirring up swirling clouds of dust. They immediately make their way to the chopper and hurriedly bring patients into the trauma center. Within seconds, the emergency room is buzzing with activity as doctors, nurses, radiologists and medical technicians assess patients’ injuries, check vital signs, administer medications and set up X-ray equipment.

This is a typical routine for 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group Airmen, who often repeat this process several times a day at the Air Force Theater Hospital here.

The hospital is a primary care clinic and a contingency aeromedical staging facility used to provide medical services for U.S. and coalition forces.

Quality medical care and speedy evacuations of wounded servicemembers in Iraq have helped achieve “the lowest mortality rate ever seen in modern warfare,” said former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz.

Surgeons trained in more than 20 different specialties, and Army combat medics and evacuation teams provide treatment.

“Most of our patients are U.S. military and Iraqi army, national guard and police,” said Col. Chuck Hardin, 332nd EMDG commander.

The medics also treat wounded insurgents, civilians injured by war actions and a small number of “humanitarian” patients, usually children, on a space-available basis, Colonel Hardin said.

“The children we see here usually have conditions or injuries that the downtown hospital isn’t equipped to handle,” he said. “We can only take humanitarian patients when we have unused beds available, but helping children is especially rewarding for us and goes a long way toward developing good relationships with local families and villages.”

Staff Sgt. Brenda Buchko, an aeromedical technician, said, “We really put our hearts into our jobs, and we want our patients to know that we’re going to give them the best care possible.”

Even as trauma teams go to work on their latest patients, helicopters lift off outside the hospital and soon disappear from view. More new patients will arrive soon, beginning a new cycle of challenges for 332nd EMDG medics.