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AIRVENTURE TODAY
Global medical evacuation is safety net for troops By Frederick A. Johnsen
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here are some modest angels on the convention grounds today, and tonight they will share the story of how they care for critically injured American military members and air-evacuate them to hospitals. Three members of an Air Force Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) will join Brig. Gen. Kory Cornum, Air Mobility Command surgeon general, for a special Theater in the Woods presentation tonight at 6:30 p.m. They will describe what goes into a mission to bring critically wounded soldiers from Afghanistan in a C-17 transport to hospital care. One of the team, Maj. George Kotti, said he hopes the emphasis will be on the injured heroes, and not the critical care team members like him. “It’s re-
ally about these guys,” he says, talking about the patients. CCATT is a crucial subset of the Air Force’s overall aeromedical evacuation mission. Credited with a survival rate of more than 90 percent, CCATT handles critically injured patients, not “walky-talkies” as the team members sometimes call less seriously injured patients on regular medevac sorties. Lt. Col. Heidi Stewart and Tech. Sgt. Jonita Williams say they don’t often hear back from the CCATT patients they take to safety, but many of the people in their care are sedated and unaware of their circumstances. Stewart says experience shows a part of the healing process for a patient includes comprehension of their mishap and early care. The CCATT
PHOTO BY PHIL WESTON
Maj. Chipper Woodruff, pilot of the C-17, is interviewed on Boeing Plaza.
team makes entries in journals that travel with each patient, and can provide background for them to aid in their recovery. A CCATT functions as an onboard Intensive Care Unit (ICU). “We carry drugs and blood and pretty much everything you need for an ICU,” Kotti explains. A C-17 Globemaster III like the one displayed at AirVenture 2014 routinely carries enough stanchions and equipment to support up to nine litter patients, Stewart says. For a major evacuation, as many as 114 patients could be airlifted in a C-17. To meet the medical evacuation need, aircraft ranging from small C21s to C-130s, KC-135s and HH-60 helicopters can also be configured for evacuation of patients.
Sometimes the aircraft is dedicated to medical evacuation when the need is time-critical. With aerial refueling capability, C-17s have flown nonstop from overseas to U.S. hospitals with time-critical patients. At other times, cargo may be carried simultaneously, but patient welfare and care is the top priority. The CCATT members at AirVenture are from the Air Force’s 81st Medical Group. They can expect to spend at least six months deployed, working with patients from Afghanistan to hospitals in Germany and the United States. They fly both scheduled and emergency short-notice missions. The CCATT team is proud of their mission, but disarmingly humble about their place next to the wounded warriors they save.