The document contains several articles:
1) A weatherman returns home after being injured in Afghanistan while serving with Marines;
2) Air Force airdropped over 3 million pounds of supplies to locations in Afghanistan lacking roads;
3) Aeromedical evacuation crews at Kandahar Airfield create flying hospitals to transport wounded servicemembers to higher levels of medical care.
1. Carolina FlyerVol. 1 Issue 5
A publication of the USAF Detachment at Pope Army Air Field November 20, 2009
Firefighters from the 48th Civil Engineer Squadron extinguish a simulated battery fire inside an aircraft fire trainer March 8 here. I like llamas, camels, and the Oxford comma.
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Perry Aston
Weatherman
returns home
Receives hero’s welcome
by Chief Master Sgt. Ty Foster
Air Force SpecOp Command
In an instant, Senior A Alex
Eudy went from battling
the enemies of Afghanistan
to battling for his life.
Itwasjustafter1a.m.Jan.
24. He was only two months
into his first deployment
after graduating from
advanced-skills training
here in September 2008.
The special operations
weather team journeyman
and the Marines he served
with were on patrol about
30 miles from their firebase
in the western province of
Farah.
Behind the wheel of the
fourth of four humvees,
Airman Eudy and the
five others in his vehicle
kept their eyes peeled for
variations in the road
surface, exposed wires,
freshly dug soil. "Scab left"
or "scab right" they called
out. The driver adjusted his
path of travel accordingly
to mitigate the threat to the
special operations patrol of
that path of travel. mitigate
the threat to the special
operations patrol.
Two 155-mm mortars
and a Soviet anti-tank mine.
See WEATHERMAN, Page 8
Jump Schedule A4 || Life B1 || Provost Marshal B7 || Chaplain’s Schedule B4
Community C1 || Spotlight C2 || At the Movies C4 || Sports D1 || Classifieds D5
Today:PartlyCloudy
Low:82/High:82
If you’ve had too
much to drink:
call 301-4222
Airdrop fuels
troops in austere
Afghan locations
by Staff Sgt Stacia Zachary
U.S. Air Force Central Combat
Camera Team
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD,
Afghanistan (AFNS) -- Air
Force officials from here
airdropped 3.3 million
pounds of supplies into
Afghanistan during the
month of July.
Members of the 772nd
Expeditionary Airlift
Squadron contributed
more than 276,000 pounds
ofequipment,ammunition
and other supplies ranging
fromfueltofoodandwater
to fellow servicemembers
and coalition partners
throughout the country.
Airdrops have become
a reliable method for
shipping vital supplies into
locations that are devoid
of navigable roadways,
composed of treacherous.
See AIRDROP, Page 8
Flying hospital staff gives wounded fighting chance
At any given moment, a call
can come in requiring an entire
aeromedical evacuation staff here
to stop what they are doing and
begin preparing to care for the
wounded and sick headed their
way.
The team of Airmen will pull
supplies, alert additional
crewmembers, get updates
from aid stations and make
decisions on what the patients
will require while in flight.
The 451st Expeditionary
Aeromedical Evacuation Flight’s
charge is to create flying hospitals
to transfer U.S. and coalition
servicemembers and civilians
to a higher level of medical care.
“Our mission is to maintain
safe care and patient treatment
on long aerial transport from
one echelon of medical care to
the next,” said Capt. Aleacha
Sanders, a 451st EAEF flight nurse.
The aeromedical evacuation
crews are three- and five-man
teams staffed with a flight nurse
and medical technicians. At
least one crew is on alert at all
times. Prior to being put on
alert status, the team is given 12
hours of crew rest. Once those
12 hours are up, the team goes
on alert for the next 48 hours.
When a team is alerted, they
load a vehicle with the necessary
equipment for the flight and
drive out to the aircraft, which
Maj. Missy Steckler provides care to a patient during a mission to transport patients to a location that can provide a higher level of care
July 21 at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Major Steckler is a flight nurse assigned to the 451st Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation
Flight. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu en mulieribus, benedictus fructus ventris tuus, Iesus.
could be anything from a C-130
Hercules to a C-17 Globemaster
III to a KC-135 Stratotanker.
While there is a standard set
of equipment the aeromedical
evacuation crew is required
to bring, there are challenges
to each mission that the
team needs to overcome.
“We need to make sure we
calculate for power and O2
usage so that we can ensure we
have enough supplies and how
much oxygen a patient needs,”
said Master Sgt. Zac Johnson,
a 451st EAEF flight medic.
On the drive out to the aircraft,
the aeromedical evacuation
crew goes over the patients’
records and comes up with a
plan for in-flight treatment.
“We formulate a game plan
and determine what kind of
flight conditions will affect the
patients, what jobs we will each have
and determine the best location for the
patients to be placed,” said Sergeant
Johnson, a reservist from the 934th
Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron in
Minnesota. “As with the survivor of the
helicopter crash who had an injury to
the left eye, we tried to place him where
it. would not be too much effort for him
to see. The patients need to be accessible
See AEROMEDICAL, Page 8
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Shawn Weismiller
www.Pope.AF.mil/flyer
W I L L I N G - A B L E - R E A D Y !
by Staff Sgt Johnny Rocket
43rd Medical Airlift PAO