2515th Naval Air Ambulance Detachment takes on medical missions

Photo By Sgt. Thomas Day | A 2515th Naval Air Ambulance Detachment pilot peers out of a MH-60 Sierra Nighthawk helicopter.  

03.28.2007

Story by Sgt. Thomas Day 

40th Public Affairs Detachment

By Sgt. Thomas L. Day
40th Public Affairs Detachment

KUWAIT - One U.S. Navy unit has "docked" at Camp Buehring, Kuwait's Udairi Army Airfield. This deployment has been a first for the 2515th Naval Air Ambulance Detachment.

"This is a pretty unique mission for the Navy, just in the fact that we're working for the Army," said Lt. Luke Riddle, a medical evacuation pilot from Lexington, Ky. "We do a lot of search and rescue from ships - we typically don't do it on land."

The unit is comprised of two different squadrons from the Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21 and the HSCS 23, both based in San Diego. Their primary mission is to provide on-call medical support for Kuwait and the southern and western portions of Iraq. When a medical emergency is called into the 2515th NAAD, a team scurries to the nearest MH-60 Sierra Nighthawk helicopter and moves to the injury site.

"Pretty much wherever they call us, we go," Riddle said.

And they have been called more than 80 times since arriving in theater. Each flight carries a team of medical personnel equipped for any scenario.

They don't take their time.

"Our goal is no more than 15 minutes [to fly out of the airfield]," said Chief Petty Officer Jason Owen. Usually the team takes to the skies before the 10-minute mark, Owen added.

"Normally it's all about the pilots, but now it's about the guys in the back," Riddle said, calling himself a "bus driver" for the medics.

The 2515th NAAD mechanics keep the Nighthawks in the sky, which is no short order in the intense Kuwait environment. The unit has six Nighthawk helicopters, upkeeping the aircrafts through punishing heat and the constant abrasion from the desert sand.

"To date, we're up to 18 rotor replacements due to sand erosion," said Chief Petty Officer John Kaldowski of Barstow, Calif. The sand, he added, has also forced them to change 24 windshields. "We could do a six-month deployment and never change one."

The unit - pilots, medics and mechanics - trained with the Army at Fort Irwin, Calif., prior to deploying to Kuwait last fall.

"Increasingly, our mission is in Iraq," Riddle said. "It took a while for the Army to trust us...we've been able to take many missions that the Army has been unable to take because of the added capabilities of the Navy."

• Date Taken: 03.28.2007
• Date Posted: 03.28.2007 13:55
• Story ID: 9650