MEDEVAC Matters

…”The medevac was very late.  It took us about 20 minutes to get back to the Landing Zone (LZ).  Based on my significant experience down here in southern Afghanistan, I know that the helicopter could and should have already been on orbit waiting for us.  Chazray was dying but fully conscious and talking the entire time.  We waited, and waited.  Finally a radio call came that the medevac was “wheels up” from KAF.  It was unbelievable to us that the medevac was just taking off from Kandahar Airfield, twenty-five miles away.

The problem was that this was an Army Dustoff medevac, and Army medevacs don’t carry machine guns because they have red crosses emblazoned on the sides and front.  When our helicopters sport the red crosses, they can’t carry offensive weapons.  This is meaningless anyway because they are accompanied by an Apache attack helicopter, which is fully loaded with a cannon and missiles…”

Photo courtesy of Michael Yon, Copyright 2011

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