The real reason why Army MEDEVAC helicopters fly unarmed
Since the Vietnam War era, there has been a tension between the MEDEVAC force and the Army’s combat arms force. At the time MEDEVAC operated with functional autonomy on the battlefield as a Army Corps level unit. During that war when a request for MEDEVAC was received a helicopter was dispatched from the MEDEVAC fleet … Continue reading
Army Medical Department (AMEDD) MEDEVAC Innovations 1991-2011
2009 – MEDEVAC Force Expansion “All 37 MEDEVAC companies grew from 12 to 15 aircraft and 85 to 109 personnel. In addition, 9 MEDEVAC companies were added to the Reserve Component. Six new LUH [Light Utility Helicopter] MEDEVAC Companies with 8 aircraft each were added to the Reserve Component in support of Homeland Security and … Continue reading
Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Innovations 1991-2011
Army Medicine Innovations Since Desert Storm About AMEDD After Operation Desert Storm, the Army Medical Department took a number of initiatives to improve soldier health, medical care during deployments and on the battlefield, and the training and tools that medical personnel have to deliver care. These efforts have built a more efficient, better integrated system … Continue reading
NATO Newsletter: NATO Medical Lessons Learned Newsletter, March 2011
NATO Medical Lessons Learned Newsletter “Analysis of medical lessons is an essential means to improve operational effectiveness. By identifying where medical support can be enhanced and by providing recommendations t0 NATO bodies and nations, the lessons learned (LL) process enables NATO t0 make best use of its collective knowledge and experience. However, the LL process … Continue reading
NATO Training: PECC Training Course
“The NATO Military Medicine Center of Excellence Training Branch started the development of the Patient Evacuation Coordination Cell (PECC) Course with a Course Design Meeting on 30 January – 03 February 2012. The design meeting was based on a previous discussion with the German Armed Forces Medical Academy Training Centre (Feldkirchen, DEU) personnel, where the … Continue reading
NATO Report: ALLIED JOINT DOCTRINE FOR MEDICAL EVACUATION
ALLIED JOINT DOCTRINE FOR MEDICAL EVACUATION Abstract This article concentrates on the policy that is available within NATO to support and coordinate the medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) process, for both NATO forces and for those agencies and bodies that choose to interact and operate alongside NATO personnel. NATO doctrine is coordinated and crafted by Allied Command … Continue reading
NATO report: NATO – Medical Evacuation in Afghanistan MP-HFM-157-05
This Official NATO report is an assessment of MEDEVAC efforts in Afghanistan. Abstract Joint Forces Command in Brunssum (JFCBS) is the operational level headquarters (HQ) for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan. From the view of the current Medical Advisor of this HQ this article lights aspects of Aeromedical Evacuation (AE) in … Continue reading
US Army Report: 2011 After action report blasts MEDEVAC shortcomings
United States Central Command Joint Theater Trauma System HQ, BAF, APO, AE 09354 MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD 7 February 2011 SUBJECT: After action report for MEDCOM Tasker 1039.01C. (90 Day TSC deployment of an Emergency Physician to serve as the medical director for Enroute Critical Care Nurses (ECCN) and MEDEVAC units performing patient evacuation in the … Continue reading
Point-Counterpoint: 92% Casualty Survival Rate in Afghanistan
The Department of Defense defines Killed In Action (KIA) as someone who “is killed outright or who dies as a result of wounds or other injuries before reaching a medical treatment facility.” Someone who is wounded in battle and survives his wounds and is later returned to duty or transported to a higher level Medical … Continue reading
Point-Counterpoint: Geneva Convention Applicability to the U.S. in Afghanistan
A familiar argument against changing the Army’s MEDEVAC policies is that the United States is a signatory state on the Geneva Convention and we are prohibited from providing medical evacuation to wounded troops in unmarked, armed helicopters. The argument often is buttressed by the admonition that even if our adversaries (the Taliban and al Qaeda) … Continue reading
Daily Mail Online (UK): ‘He’d still be here’: Mother’s agony
By Hannah Roberts “An inconsolable mother has told of her heartbreak after an American soldier died before a helicopter could get him to hospital in Afghanistan. It took a medical evacuation team 59 minutes to get U.S. Army Specialist Chazray Clark to a hospital, after receiving a call that a roadside bombing had severed three … Continue reading
Yon: 66 minutes is not 59 minutes
“The Army campaign around the MEDEVAC continues to unravel. They’ve tried just about everything short of assassination and witchcraft to freeze the growing stampede. In the beginning, they claimed that my accounts of the failed MEDEVAC were completely wrong. And then I produced the inconvenient high definition video and audio. Undeterred, the Army has continued … Continue reading
Kevin Lehmann: Incomprehensibly Stupid Army Regulation Killing Americans in Afghanistan
” [snip] There is no requirement for a signatory nation to follow the Convention when opposing forces do not respect it. To do so is suicide, yet to placate the denizens of PC, the Army goes right ahead. Perhaps the bureaucrats and politicians who design these policies should first be required to personally oversee their … Continue reading
Medical Treatment Facilities (MTF)
Levels of Medical Care Medical care is provided in a progressive manner, ranging from immediate first aid at the point of wounding to definitive, specialized care and rehabilitation provided at medical treatment facilities. This may comprise resuscitation and stabilization of vital functions, damage control resuscitation, and definitive treatment and rehabilitation. Linking all these interventions is … Continue reading
NATO MEDEVAC Timelines
NATO laid out the medical evacuation timelines in its Allied Joint Publication 4-10(A) “Allied Joint Medical Doctrine”. Since NATO become involved in Afghanistan it assumed responsibility for managing medical evacuations throughout the entire country. Accordingly, its policies and doctrine drives MEDEVAC operations. Note that the timelines begin AT THE TIME OF WOUNDING, not the time … Continue reading
AP: Should U.S. Arm Medevacs in Afghanistan?
Video Report by Brian Thomas “The death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, whose evacuation took nearly an hour after he was wounded, is fueling debate about whether medevac helicopters should be equipped with firepower, not unarmed.”
Yon: Department of Army Monitoring MEDEVAC Articles
“The following message was issued behind closed doors by the Department of Army (DA). It pertains to media coverage of the MEDEVAC debacle. There is no foul in monitoring the articles, but the inside glimpse is interesting. TAMPA TRIBUNE COVERS MEDEVAC STORY WITH LOCAL ANGLE: Howard Altman, Tampa Tribune, is doing a story about one … Continue reading
Yon: Tippity Top General attempts to Deceive Congressman (in writing)
“Happy Valentine’s Day. It isn’t Valentine’s for those who will get hit with bullets or bombs today. And it will happen. So let’s get down to business. The top officer in the US Military is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Chairman is the principal military advisor to President Obama. Recently, Congressman … Continue reading
American Thinker: No Sex, Many Lies, One Videotape, and a Soldier’s Unnecessary Death
By James Simpson “It is not a movie. It could be labeled a comedy, a farce, even a Greek tragedy, except that people really are dying. It is, in fact, an absolutely abhorrent, disgraceful, and unacceptable demonstration of the hidebound, self-serving attitude, omnipresent throughout the federal bureaucracy and among many in our political establishment, that … Continue reading
Fox News: Congressman Akin Discusses Medevac Issues in Afghanistan
Video interview by Jenna Lee of Fox News. “Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), Chairman of the Seapower & Projection Forces Subcommittee, discusses concerns he has raised with the Department of Defense regarding delays of Army medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopters in Afghanistan.”
Letter from Chazray Clark’s Mother
A letter from Chazray Clark’s Mother asking for a change to U.S. Army Evacuation Policies: Hello to all American Citizens at home and abroad. My name is Keyko Clark-Davis and I am a military parent whose first-born son, Army SPC Chazray Clark was killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan on 18 Sept 2011. The fact that my … Continue reading
Yon: 17 Members of Congress Want Answers on MEDEVAC
The following letter dated February 3, 2012 from Members of Congress to Secretary of Defense Panetta was reproduced on Michael Yon’s blog:
NY Post: Hurry, wait … and die. Army rules stalling Medevacs
On Sept. 18, Army Spec. Chazray Clark stepped on an IED in Kandahar province, instantly losing an arm and both legs. But the 24-year-old Michigan native was still able to say, “I’m OK,” when his sergeant frantically called out his name. The patrol’s commander immediately radioed for an Army Medevac helicopter, or Dustoff. Clark’s comrade … Continue reading
MEDEVAC Matters 