Photo By Staff Sgt. Andrea Merritt | Lusby, Md., native U.S. Army Spc. Bryan Heaston, crew chief with the 3rd Forward...... read more read more
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHANK, Afghanistan – Around 6:00 p.m. Oct. 27, while soldiers of the 3rd Forward Support Medevac Team sat eating dinner in the office, a voice over the radio uttered the words “Medevac! Medevac! Medevac!”
The crew from Company C, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, immediately sprang into action, leaving their half-eaten meals behind. They grabbed their equipment and raced down the flight line at top speed to the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Within five minutes, the helicopters took off from FOB Shank and flew toward Combat Outpost Chak to pick up an Afghan National Army soldier who sustained second-degree burns to his face, neck and upper left extremities in a non-combat related incident.
“We see a wide range of injuries,” said New Orleans native U.S. Army Sgt. Robert Smith, flight medic with the 3rd FSMT. “Everything from traumatic brain injury, amputations, multiple gunshot wounds, cardiac arrest and heart attacks to your basic medical illnesses and [we] get them to a higher level of care.”
Once the patient was in the aircraft, Smith turned on his red-lensed flashlight and went to work checking his vitals.
For a brief moment the ANA soldier awoke, seemingly startled by the shadowy figure with the glowing, red face standing over him. After some reassurance from Smith, he calmed down and drifted back to sleep. The hospital was only a few minutes away.
In less than an hour, the medevac crew responded to the call, picked up the injured ANA soldier, took him to the forward surgical team at FOB Shank, refueled the aircraft, and returned to base, ready to answer the next call.
With elements at FOBs Shank and Ghazni, the 3rd FSMT provides medevac support throughout Logar and Wardak provinces in support of Task Force Bulldog.
The 3rd FSMT “All-American Dustoff” Soldiers stand ready to take off at a moment’s notice to reach patients in need of potentially life-saving medical treatment.
“Every medevac pilot knows that Dustoff stands for dedicated, unhesitating selfless service to our fighting forces,” said U.S. Army Capt. Adam Ellington, Cedar City, Utah, native and 3rd FSMT platoon leader. “That’s what we provide to the guys on the ground.”
When a soldier is injured, the time it takes for him to receive proper medical care can mean the difference between life and death.
“In the medical field, we have what we call the Platinum Ten and the Golden Hour,” Smith said. “The Platinum Ten is the first line of care provided to a casualty within the first ten minutes of an injury.”
“If they contact us immediately and we get the patient to the FST within the Golden Hour, it raises their chances of survival exponentially,” Smith explained.
If a patient is in need of urgent medical care, the medevac team has 15 minutes to get the aircraft off the ground. On average, the crew can take off within five minutes of receiving an urgent medevac request.
“We do the big inspections and stage our gear in the morning so that when we get a call, all we have to do is run to the aircraft and start it up,” Ellington said.
Throughout the day, a Soldier mans the desk and scans the messaging traffic between ground forces and higher headquarters. If a 9-line medevac request comes up in their area of operation, the medevac crew already has a heads up and can start preparing before the actual call comes in.
They all have to function together as a well-oiled machine to accomplish the missions that come their way.
“Teamwork and good communication are the most important things,” Smith said. “Our crew has strong teamwork. We can handle things thrown our way. Without teamwork, the mission could fall apart.”
In a 24-hour period, the crew responded to two medevac requests. If they weren’t out on a mission, they were conducting unit business; all the while, their radios within reach to listen for the call that could possibly save someone’s life.
“I love my job,” said Lusby, Md., native U.S. Army Spc. Bryan Heaston, crew chief with the 3rd FSMT. “It feels good to get Soldiers off the battlefield. Sometimes, we risk our lives going in and to be able to save them makes it worth it.”
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 10.31.2011 20:28 |
| Story ID: | 79355 |
| Location: | FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHANK, AF |
| Web Views: | 136 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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