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
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
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
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
CBS Evening News: Did a military rule cost a soldier’s life?
Did a military rule cost a soldier’s life? January 19, 2012 4:51 PM On a September night in Afghanistan, a wounded American soldier died waiting to be evacuated. David Martin reports on a military rule that could have contributed to the soldier’s death. The CBS Evening News video report can be viewed here: Did a … Continue reading
Mat-Su Valley Frontiersmen: Medevac policy is costing lives
By Larry Wood “The U.S. Army has a policy that is killing our wounded troops. The Army refuses to arm its medevac helicopters and insists on marking them with red crosses on white backgrounds so the enemy has a good aiming point and knows that they are not armed. The other services do not have … Continue reading
U.S. Army Chief of Staff letter to Senator Jon Kyl
Comment David L. Bishop, Brigadier General, US Army responds to an inquiry from Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) about the death of SPC Chazray Clark. The General dutifully repeats the Army’s refrain that 98.5% of all evacuations are made within 60 minutes in Regional Command-South and claims that SPC Clark’s was completed in 59 minutes. One … Continue reading
Yon: Fool’s Gold – Video from SPC Chazray Clark’s MEDEVAC Wait
[snip] “This combat video was made in September 2011 in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. A bomb was planted in our path. A young, highly-liked Soldier named Chazray Clark triggered the blast. Chazray lost an arm and both legs. Despite great pain, Chazray was awake and lucid the entire time. A tragedy was unfolding. The US military, … Continue reading
YON: Golden Seconds
[snip]…”The Golden Hour is crucial to survival of the seriously wounded. There also are Golden Minutes. The already-bleeding wounded are not the only ones in danger. The casualties provide a golden opportunity for the enemy to shoot down a helicopter and attack the preoccupied ground force. For the incoming helicopters, and ground forces in combat, … Continue reading
YON: Red Air – America’s Medevac Failure [the article that started it all]
…”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 … Continue reading
2011-05-24 Secretary Gates Blasts Pentagon’s Resistance to Change
Secretary of Defense Gates embarked on a series of speeches in the Spring and early Summer of 2011, reflecting on the successes and challenges of his tenure. In this speech he draws attention to institutional obstacles to change within the Pentagon. Given the official responses to the MEDEVAC issues being raised, it appears that Secretary … Continue reading
MEDEVAC Matters 