MEDEVAC Matters

By Bill Tuttle

“Connectivity, lack thereof, being what it is over here in Afghanistan, I was aware of the latest brouhaha Mike Yon has started about medevacs having target markers — ummm — big red crosses painted on them so we’d be in compliance with the Geneva Accords. I figured the controversy, which appears to be more flame and smoke than actual light, would have died down by now, but it appears that The American Thinker and SOF. Both chimed in while I’ve been admiring the scenery here in Kabul.”

[snip]

“Fast forward to today. We don’t have the helicopter assets in Afghanistan that we had in Vietnam, let alone the dedicated medevac assets. It makes no sense to me, as a pilot, to let a casualty lie bleeding in a hot LZ when there’s speed of transportation available in the form of a non-medevac ship, without the restrictions placed on the Red Cross crews. And don’t get me started on the length of time it takes to crank an Apache and go through all the weapons checks before it can depart on an escort mission.

A lot of the commenters I’ve read talked about the consequences of violating the Convention by either scrubbing off the Red Cross or by carrying weapons – herewith are those consequences:

“Violation of these Conventions can result in the loss of protection afforded by them.”

Read the entire article here.