Airmen help bring wounded home

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Becky J. LaRaia
  • 43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. (AFPN) --  Forty-eight wounded Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines were brought home for Independence Day, and six medical workers from the 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron here were there to help get them back safely.

This is the second time 43rd AES Airmen have been able to participate in the routine C-141 Starlifter medical mission from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

These aircraft carry people wounded in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to the United States for further medical care.

The mission began routinely for the six medics July 1 with an eight-hour flight from Andrews to Ramstein. The real challenge began 24 hours later when the C-141 was packed from the front to the back with patients suffering from shrapnel injuries, bullet wounds, burns and even critical internal injuries.

With patients sitting along both sides of the aircraft, and litters three tiers high for the full length of the plane, Staff Sgt. Beverly Maidens said working in a limited space is one of the biggest challenges. She was one of three aeromedical evacuation technicians who volunteered for the mission.

“If you needed to take care of a patient on the third litter tier, you’d literally have to have a patient (who) was sitting move (his or her) legs so you could stand on the seat to get up there,” she said.

The type of medical care needed does not change in an airborne environment, said Col. Carol Vermillion, the medical crew director for the mission.

“You are still doing all the same things you would do if you had all of these patients in the hospital,” she said.

It takes longer to do minor procedures like checking vital signs, giving shots and administering medication, the colonel said.

Having a patient with an injury also makes small things like using the restroom difficult.

Helping a patient with casts to the restroom from a litter on the third tier was quite an experience, Sergeant Maidens said. The whole process could take up to 30 minutes. A patient first had to get down off the litter, at least 6 feet off the aircraft floor, and then walk down the 24-inch space between the seats and the litters while striving to avoid hitting other patients with his or her bulky casts.

Despite the challenges, the crew and the medical team said they were proud to bring these wounded warriors home especially on such a patriotic weekend.

The crew gave each patient a miniature American flag.

“It really meant a lot to the patients,” said Staff Sgt. Eddie Ragland, another technician on the mission.

Sergeant Maidens said she shared tears with a family of one of her patients who had severe shrapnel wounds to his face and burns on his hands.

“I got emotional because his family was waiting on him, and they hadn’t seen him in a year and a half,” she said.

She said as soon as he was removed from the plane, “they immediately tried to storm the litter. They wanted to see him because they hadn’t seen him in so long, and they were crying.”

Other family members met the wounded servicemembers at Andrews, but the patients were also greeted by a representative from their respective service.

“When you get off the plane with an injured patient and the family is there, they haven’t seen them in a year or a year and a half and you’re doing it on a Fourth of July weekend, you’ve got to go home with a smile on your face,” Sergeant Maidens said. “This is why we do this.”

The crew returned home July 4. After 72 hours of time changes, long days and broken sleep, some chose to participate in the remaining Independence Day festivities, but most went straight to bed. Regardless, this was a Fourth of July weekend that this crew said they will not soon forget.