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Army medevac
service aids isles
The dramatic two-day recovery operations on Kauai last month where an Army UH-60A Black Hawk and its medevac crew helped to recover the bodies of four people killed in a tour helicopter crash was one of the few neighbor island operations under a 30-year military-civilian agreement.
Since 1974, the Army's Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic program has flown 7,000 patients during more than 6,000 aeromedical evacuation missions, according to Maj. Shannon Beckett, commander of the 120-member 68th Medical Company (Air Ambulance).
"That resulted in savings to the taxpayers of Hawaii of more than $91 million," said Beckett who has been in the Army for 12 years.
That mission was complicated earlier this year when the 25th Infantry Division was required to provide soldiers for the war in Iraq. Among the 4,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers equipment, the 68th sent half of its detachment and four of its nine Black Hawks.
"The purpose of keeping half of the unit here," said Beckett, 35, "was to continue to support the citizens of Hawaii and the soldiers still here."
Besides Oahu, the Army also sends one Black Hawk medevac chopper and a crew of four to the Big Island's Pohakuloa Training Area and stations it at Bradshaw field during any military training operations.
"We average 270 days a year there," said Beckett.
At Wheeler Army Air Field, the 68th, whose motto is "Dust Off Hawaii," maintains one helicopter on the ready pad and a crew of four and radio-telephone operator around-the-clock. "Dust Off" refers to the aeromedical helicopter evacuation system that was a key part of the Vietnam War.
"We average about 15 missions a month," said Beckett in describing Wheeler's MAST operations.
It's the civilian emergency medical services technicians on the scene who determine if an Army medevac chopper will be summoned using as a guide the time needed to transport the victims to the nearest hospital and the severity of the injuries.
Army helicopter air crews only have 10 minutes to plan the route, to evaluate the weather conditions, and to find out the patient's condition and location.
Each medevac Black Hawk helicopter can carry up to six litter patients and is equipped with portable defibrillator, equipment to monitor patient's oxygen level, burn kits, spine boards and a first aid bag with enough supplies to stabilize three patients, according to Sgt. Luis Ramirez Jr., who has been a flight medic for the past 2 1/2 years.
The pilots also fly with night vision goggles attached to their flight helmets. Beckett said "the night vision technology made it possible for me to spot a lost hiker who was two miles away when he turned on his cell phone."
In addition, the Black Hawks are equipped with the "Jungle Penetrator" -- a hoist with a 250-foot cable and which is weighed and shaped like a bullet so it can be lowered through the foliage and tree tops, like those of the jungles in Vietnam and Hawaii, to the ground.
"At the end is a seat, which when it unfolds, contains two seats and has a capacity of 600 pounds," Beckett said.
The Penetrator was one of the crucial elements of the Sept. 27-28 recovery missions where two 68th medics, Staff Sgt. David Lara and Spc. David King, -- made 28 trips escorting Kauai rescue personnel.
On Sept. 24, a Bali Hai tour helicopter plowed into the side of the mountain, which had a 70-degree slope, at the 2,900-foot level. The winds in the area prevented the Kauai Fire Department's helicopter from hovering long enough over the crash site to lower rescue teams, so a heavier UH-60 Black Hawk and a crew of five were called in from the 68th to assist.
Because of the steep angle, the nose of the recovery helicopter was just 10 feet from the ridge while the tail wheel of the 64-foot Black Hawk was 200 feet above the slope of the mountain.
Chief Warrant Officer Chris Jordan, the 68th's executive officer, said the Kauai recovery mission was not a typical MAST operation.
Generally, when the 68th is called to the Neighbor Islands, it is to shuttle patients who may be too large or too heavy for normal interisland air ambulances or babies who need special incubators.
Chief Warrant Officer Mark McClure, one of two patients who flew the Kauai recovery missions, also was involved in the rescue operations on Mother's Day 1999 when six people were killed and dozens were injured during a rockslide at Sacred Falls.
Beckett said his most challenging mission occurred a year ago when he had to extract a soldier, who had been pinned between two vehicles, from a training area in the Koolaus.
In 2000, Beckett was deployed to Kosovo where the conditions "were very much like PTA (Pohakuloa Training Area) -- rocky, rugged, involving high altitude extraction missions."
During the current deployment to Afghanistan, Beckett said the 68th has "flown more missions there in four months than what we do in an entire year at Wheeler. We flew 320 life-saving missions in six months.
"The training we have obtained through the MAST missions," Beckett said, "is showing up in Afghanistan."
"In Afghanistan, our missions are very much same as it is here with MAST, but with the additional challenge of enemy fire or enemy activity."
