SG: Lessons learned in OEF help in Iraq

  • Published
  • By G.W. Pomeroy
  • Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  Lessons learned in Operation Enduring Freedom have resulted in better patient care and better interoperability with other services during Operation Iraqi Freedom, said the Air Force surgeon general. He recently completed a 10-day tour visit to the OEF and OIF theaters.

“We learned a large number of lessons in OEF on how to better operate with special forces and with the Army and Navy, and all those have been turned into smoother actions during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the ongoing OEF,” said Lt. Gen. (Dr.) George Peach Taylor Jr.

“So from the perspective of the patient, there are fewer seams in the system from point of injury or illness to definitive health care,” Taylor said.

Additionally, there is a much better understanding in the Army of the Air Force’s capability to move critical patients, and there is a much better understanding from special forces about how they fit into the system, Taylor said.

Air Force medical presence throughout the OIF theater includes five expeditionary medical systems, two aeromedical-evacuation squadrons with a substantial number of aeromedical-evacuation assets, air-evacuation liaison teams and aeromedical-staging facilities, Taylor said.

“Air Force medics on the ground and those performing aeromedical evacuations have been, and will remain, major factors in operations Iraqi (Freedom) and Enduring Freedom,” Taylor said.

There is little to change about the aeromedical evacuation system but its capability creates new opportunities balancing the medical “footprint” on the ground, Taylor said.

“At Army hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq, you don’t find a large number of Army casualties because the aeromedical system is so good (at moving) people -- after essential care is accomplished -- to higher levels of care,” he said.

”This, in turn, keeps the hospitals clear for more casualties if and when the need arises,” Taylor said.

“However, as we convert from force entry and combat operations and move to a longer-term presence, the (Air Force medical) presence on the ground will require some modifications,” said Taylor, who served as the Air Force’s forward surgeon in Operation Allied Force in Kosovo. He also molded Air Combat Command’s medical response in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, including OEF.

A typical EMEDS includes a staff of 25 to 85 and can provide expanded in-patient care for at-risk populations ranging in size from 500 to 5,000 people. Specific response specialists can be added to the basic EMEDS capabilities. These include roughly a dozen specialties ranging from agent detection and patient decontamination to preventive medicine and critical incident stress management.

“A lot of the EMEDS is for combat, high-speed operations, whereas now we’re in for a longer haul,” Taylor said. “You need surgeons for the emergency part, but it becomes more of a dental care, preventive medicine and primary-care operation after major combat ends.”

According to Air Force statistics, through mid-October, Air Force surgeons had performed 217 surgeries in Iraq, or 3 percent of the 8,908 total admissions up to that point.

“We need to make sure we have the right balance of staff, including surgeons, orthopedics and anesthesiologists,” Taylor said. “They need one less of this and one more of that so we need to work ... to allow us to bring the capabilities they need for the longer term.”

Taylor said that during his visit to the region, he encountered a lot of happy and “justifiably proud” troops.

”I let them know that all of us who aren't deployed over there are proud of their commitment and sacrifices, and we understand what it means to their families to be separated and in danger's way,” he said.

He said that medical airmen told him that the training they received before they deployed was very important.

For the foreseeable future, Taylor said he believes the medical service officials will be faced with a significant expeditionary footprint forward.

“There is no doubt that the (medical service) is prepared, trained and experienced in supporting expeditionary operations,” he said. “There is no one on the planet that can do what we do.”