the dustoffer - DUSTOFF Association

DUSTOFFER
THE DUSTOFF Association Newsletter
Spring/Summer 2009
In this issue:
Vote for Your
2009 DUSTOFF Association
Hall of Fame Nominees
bc
Make Plans Now
31st DUSTOFF Reunion
19–21 February 2010
Edgewater Beach and Golf Resort
Panama City, Florida
Spring/Summer 2009
PAGE 1
President’s Message
Dear Members of the DUSTOFF Association: Greetings
from the Wiregrass. I think all those who attended our 30th
Anniversary DUSTOFF Reunion in San Antonio would
agree that this one was an overwhelming success. Thanks
once again to Dan Gower, Larry Hallstrom, and many others
(who would unfortunately take up this entire document) for
their generosity and time in making this a special event.
We are actively coordinating for the next Reunion which
will be held in Panama City, Florida, at the Edgewater
Resort, 19–21 February 2010. The Association leadership
wanted to try a new venue for 2010, and so far the overwhelming response from the membership has been very
positive. Additionally, the Army Medical Evacuation Conference (AMEC) will immediately follow the DUSTOFF
Reunion, something we have not been able to do in the last
few years.
This should enable many more Active, Guard, and
Reserve Soldiers to participate in the Reunion this year.
In addition to the world-class beaches in Panama City,
DUSTOFF Association
Executive Council
President:
Robert Mitchell... [email protected]
Executive Director:
Dan Gower.......... [email protected]
Vice President:
Bryant Harp......... [email protected]
Treasurer:
Dan Gower.......... [email protected]
the Edgewater Resort sports a championship 18-hole golf
course, all within walking distance from the hotel. I am
confident that the membership will thoroughly enjoy this
year’s Reunion. Needless to say, there will be ample opportunity for the membership to improve their golf game
with the Resort being so close to the golf course. Safety tip
of the day: “Don’t forget your clubs.”
On the operational front, there has been no change to the
Army’s OPTEMPO. Our Medevac units continue to have
the lowest time on station between deployments. In recent
months, Medevac operations have gained the attention of the
Secretary of Defense. There are concerns about the number
of aircraft that are available for the warfight and improving
the response times when the call is made for Dustoff. I don’t
think this comes as a surprise to anyone who has been in
the Medevac business, both past and present, but these are
just a few things that have surfaced since Transformation
that began in 2005.
Medical Evacuation Proponency Directorate (MEPD)
continues to provide the latest analysis and recommendations to the warfighters and the Pentagon based on lessons
learned from multiple rotations. I don’t want to paint a bleak
picture, because it is not. We continue to improve Medevac
on a daily basis.
2010 looks to be a banner year for Medevac once again.
Your Medevac crews continue to execute this difficult and
dangerous mission under the most challenging conditions,
and they make it look easy. You should be extremely proud
of everything they are accomplishing and the proud traditions they uphold for future generations of medical evacuators. I look forward to serving another year as your President
of the DUSTOFF Association. See you in Panama City.
DUSTOFF!
Bob Mitchell
Secretary:
Larry Hallstrom... [email protected]
Historian:
Patrick Zenk........ [email protected]
DUSTOFFer Editor:
Jim Truscott......... [email protected]
Web Site: http://www.dustoff.org
Ronald Huether... [email protected]
uuuuu
DUSTOFFer layout & design
Susan Gower..................................... [email protected]
Printing
Ink, Spot, Ink Printing & Publishing
PAGE 2
UH-72A Lakota
The National Training Center’s air ambulance
detachment at Fort Irwin, California, was the first
Army unit to be fielded with the new UH-72A Lakota on 22 May 2007. It has the medical evacuation
mission package on board. EADS North America is
on contract to deliver 123 Lakota aircraft. The rate
of delivery varies between 2 to 5 aircraft per month,
dependent on the quantity ordered each year. As of
16 December 2008, 51 aircraft have been fielded,
with a total accumulation of approximately 7,500
flight hours on this fleet. During the first 24 months
that the aircraft were in service, the fully missioncapable rate exceeded 90 percent.
The DUSTOFFer
DUSTOFF Pilot
Recognized
for Valor
Army Chief of Staff GEN George W. Casey Jr.
presented the Air Medal with Valor to CW2
Matthew Nall at Camp Taji on 24 December
2008 for his contribution to the rescue of four
Iraqi national police officers from the rooftop of a burning building at Joint Security
Station Oubaidy in eastern Baghdad in July
2008. Nall is an HH-60 aeromedical evacuation pilot with Company C, 2nd Battalion,
4th Aviation Regiment, with the 4th Combat
Aviation Brigade, from Fort Hood, Texas.
DUSTOFF Association
Past Presidents
Chuck Mateer (1980–81)................ deceased
John Hosley (1981–82)................... [email protected]
Byron Howlett (1982–83)............... [email protected]
Ed Taylor (1983–84)....................... [email protected]
Thomas Scofield (1984–85)............ [email protected]
Joseph Madrano (1985–86)............ [email protected]
Jim Ritchie (1986–87)
Donald Conkright (1987–88).......... [email protected]
Roy Hancock (1988–89)................. [email protected]
Glen Melton (1989–90).................. deceased
Gerald Nolan (1990–91)................. [email protected]
Jim Truscott (1991–92)................... [email protected]
Roger Opio (1992–93).................... [email protected]
Ed Bradshaw (1993–94)................. [email protected]
Robert Romines (1994–96)............ [email protected]
Daniel Gower (1996–97)................ [email protected]
Charlie Webb (1997–98)................. [email protected]
Herb Coley (1998–99).................... [email protected]
Merle Snyder (1999–2000)............. [email protected]
Gregg Griffin (2000–1)................... [email protected]
Jeff Mankoff (2001–2).................... [email protected]
Ken Crook (2002–3)....................... [email protected]
Art Hapner (2003–4)...................... [email protected]
Ernie Sylvester (2004–5) ............... [email protected]
Garry Atkins (2005-6).................... [email protected]
Doug Moore (2006-7)..................... [email protected]
Timothy Burke (2007-8)................. [email protected]
Founder
Tom “Egor” Johnson......................... [email protected]
Members at Large
Howard [email protected]
Hank [email protected]
Mary [email protected]
Scott Heintz...............................scott.heintz@enableamerica.org
Spring/Summer 2009
Letters to the Editor
From Bob McElroy, a Europe DUSTOFFer in the
1970s.
Jim,
I have about three or four favorite ballcaps, and one is
the DUSTOFF cap. I have found that wearing it inspires
others to come up to me and want to visit. Mainly, I have
found they want to share their own experiences, sometimes
about helicopters, but mostly about Viet Nam. The guys
who see my hat and want to talk are about my age, but
generally older.
I am a member of the local YMCA, where I work out,
but sometimes I go over there just for a cup of coffee in the
morning. And that’s particularly where several men have
seen my cap and wanted to share their experience.
One of the most recent guys I met was Tom Russell, who
told me about his service as an infantry company commander
in Viet Nam. He went on for about an hour with stories
about the firefights he was in, his battles with his battalion
commander, and so forth.
I am sure the same must happen to you,
Bob
Closing Out
the Flight Plan
Jack Grass
Jack Marshall Grass, 67, of Panama City, Florida, formerly of Newton, Alabama, and retired from military service,
died on Wednesday, 22 May 2009, of esophageal cancer
related to Agent Orange exposure. He was DUSTOFF 88
in the 57th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance) in
1971 and served several tours in Vietnam. He is survived by
his five children in Alabama and Maryland, his mother Ruby
Grass of Newton, and sisters Sonja Vovos of Minnesota and
Sheri Pherigo of Newton.
Angela Granger
Angela, beloved wife of DUSTOFFer Matt Granger,
sadly lost her long fight with breast cancer and passed away
on Saturday, 24 January 2009. The family’s grief is equaled
only by their knowledge and joy that Angela’s long struggle
has ended and she is at peace. She was an amazing, accomplished, strong, independent woman, who approached her
cancer the way she approached life. She displayed an unrelenting spirit, courage, and sense of humor that her disease
could never diminish. Services were held on the island of
Maui in Hawaii and later in Austin, Texas.
PAGE 3
DUSTOFF Reunion 2009
CW3 Christian Wayne Beck
2008 DUSTOFF Aviator of the Year
Steve Engebretson presents award
to MAJ LaFleur, commander
of Charley Company 3/82 for
2008 DUSTOFF Rescue of the Year
SSG Michael P. Miller, 2008 DUSTOFF
Flight Medic of the Year, and
SSG James J. Frailey, 2008 DUSTOFF
Crew Chief of the Year
Steve Engebretson presents award to
SFC Peter Rohrs and the crews for
2008 DUSTOFF Rescue of the Year.
Byron and Billie Kite Howlett
and Alice Neel were honored for attending
all 30 DUSTOFF Reunions
Gregg Stevens and the Tailpipes
Pat and Nancy Brady
Analou Eisner and Tommy Wayne Mayes
Plan Now to Attend the
31st Annual DUSTOFF Reunion
19–21 February 2010
Edgewater Beach Resort
Panama City, Florida
www.edgewaterbeachresort.com
PAGE 4
MAJ Mike Pouncey
speaks at the
professional meeting.
Pauline Lockard
and Gregg Griffin
The DUSTOFFer
An Introduction to War
An excerpt from the book by Linda Seebeth
During the Vietnam War, the bravery of
Dustoff was legendary. As reported by
guys on the ground, sometimes Dustoff
corkscrewed into hot LZs—even when
gunships would not. The following account exemplifies the skill and derringdo of a Dustoff crew. It is excerpted
from a recent book written by the wife
of Dustoff Medic John Seebeth. John
flew with the 236th from November
1968 until he was wounded in August
1969 at age 21. An Introduction to
War tells the story of his service and
subsequent healing journey.
Within minutes after receiving the
call, the crew was proceeding toward
a train wreck. North of Da Nang, the
railway steeply rises upward toward the
Hai Van Pass. The name means “Pass
of the Ocean Clouds”, because the peak
of the mountain is in the clouds while
its foot is close to the sea. Climbing
over 1,500 feet to the summit before
descending toward Hue, the rail line
curves through tunnels and hugs the
edges of sharp inclinations.
The Dustoff crew flew for about
thirty minutes before spotting a dark,
sleek locomotive that had been pulling boxcars and flatcars stacked with
palettes and lumber. One section of
the train had been blown apart, and the
remains of several cars were twisted at
odd angles where the tracks ran along
the edge of a nearly vertical embankment. As Warrant Officer Stanton
circled the area several times, the
thundering thumping of the Huey’s rotor blades was almost deafening as the
sound reverberated off the rock-ribbed
walls. Looking down, John noticed a
number of South Vietnamese soldiers
(ARVNs) standing on the mountainside guarding a perimeter, their M-16s
silently aimed at an invisible enemy.
When the helicopter passed by again,
several ARVNs appeared on top of
one of the flatcars and were frantically
gesturing to the Dustoff.
“They want us to come down,” crew
chief Allen stated as he observed the
waving men.
“I don’t see any wounded,” the copilot declared. Without radio contact,
Spring/Summer 2009
the crew had no way of knowing what
the situation on the ground was.
“The initial call said they had casualties,” Stanton related. And after a
pause, “Well, we didn’t come all the
way out here just to turn around.”
“Anyone in the vicinity is certainly
aware we’re here,” the copilot commented, referring to the amplified
John realized that the
ARVNs could not raise
the litter high enough,
so he lowered himself
out of the cargo bay and
onto the skid. . . .
sound intensity of the chopper echoing
against the mountain.
“What’s the best way to set this
up?” Stanton questioned over the intercom.
Staring out the open cargo bay door,
John thought this had to be a mission
impossible. He didn’t see how they
were going to be able to land along this
narrow passage where the tracks ran
along the natural ledge of the mountain
landscape. They hadn’t brought the
hoist, and at this particular location,
Stanton couldn’t bring the helicopter
close enough to land directly on the
flatcar because the Huey’s rotor blade
would strike the adjacent rock cliffs.
John’s stomach flipped when he looked
beyond the tracks and saw waves crashing and breaking into foam far below.
Warrant Officer Bill Stanton was
only 21 years old, but other crewmembers recognized him as a rare example
of man and machine melded into one.
Somehow Stanton managed to lightly
perch one of the chopper’s skids lengthwise on top of a stack of plywood along
the outer edge of the flatcar.
Several more ARVNs must have
clambered onto the flatcar from the opposite side, and they now approached
the helicopter hauling a litter with a
patient belted to it. John reached up
to the intercom controls on the ceiling of the cargo bay and flipped his
microphone switch to “live” position.
He kneeled at the open cargo bay door
and watched the South Vietnamese
soldiers bring the patient closer. Even
if the ARVNs spoke English, it would
be impossible to verbally communicate
with them, because all sounds were lost
to the Huey’s reverberations.
The South Vietnamese soldiers
exerted much force to lift the stretcher
at a difficult angle, straining to push
it toward the cargo bay. John realized
that the ARVNs could not raise the litter high enough, so he lowered himself
out of the cargo bay and onto the skid
while Stanton held the helicopter in
position. With his back to the ARVNs,
John bent his knees and twisted his left
arm back and downward, trying to grab
a handle of the litter. He wasn’t wearing
a safety strap, and his right hand’s grip
on the smooth, wide lip of the small
side door didn’t provide a particularly
(Introduction, continued on page 6.)
Wanted!
100 DUSTOFFers—
each with $100—who
are willing to donate
the money to the
DUSTOFF Association
At the 2007 Reunion, the membership voted to pay itself back for the
$10,000 placed into the Quad-A
Annuity for our DUSTOFF Scholarship.
These donations will be taxdeductible and help fund necessary programs of the Association,
primarily the funding of DUSTOFF
Association Coins, given to units
returning from combat operations.
At the Reunion we raised almost
$1,000 toward that goal. Be a
sustaining part of the DUSTOFF
Association. Mail your donation
to the DUSTOFF Association, P.O.
Box 8091, Wainwright Station,
San Antonio, TX 78208. On the
“for” line note “100/100.”
PAGE 5
(Introduction, continued from page 5.)
strong handhold. Maintaining a Huey
in a hover was no easy task, but Stanton kept the bird relatively motionless
while John strained to reach hold of the
litter. As the ARVNs struggled to push
the stretcher upward, the rotor wash
swept debris in their faces and blew
their uniforms snug against their skin.
The strong wind dislodged one of the
ARVN’s caps, and out of the corner of
his eye, John caught sight of it tumble
beyond the skid and fall toward the
distant, swirling froth and boulders
beneath them.
In any other circumstance, the spectacular view on this sunny afternoon
would be beautiful, but at this moment
it was terrifying. John knew the pilots
had the same view through the chin
bubble, and he knew it took intense
concentration to keep this chopper in
place. Plus, they were hovering out of
ground effect, which made the pilot’s
job technically even more difficult.
Stanton was constantly adjusting the
controls to maintain height, position,
and direction while fighting the wind
currents coming off the ocean. Despite
the intermixing of updrafts and downdrafts from the mountain, Stanton held
a stable hover.
From his sideways position, John
caught a glimpse of two more ARVNs
trying to climb on top of the flatcar.
They were lugging a second litter.
Taking a breath, John forced himself
to keep his focus on trying to get the
first patient onboard. When the ARVNs
shoved upward, he finally was able to
clutch the litter handle. John wrestled
to pull the handle up while Allen—on
his hands and knees on the floor of the
cargo bay—leaned out and grabbed the
other handle, making sure not to pull
too hard and wind up falling out the
opposite open door. Finally, they were
able to slide the patient up against the
pilots’ seats, allowing room for the
next litter. If the patient had been a
large American soldier rather than a
small-stature Vietnamese, they might
not have been able to accomplish this
tricky maneuver. Noting that the soldier was bleeding from his ears, John
turned his attention back to the train
car. In the back of his mind he couldn’t
help but think that somebody had just
DUSTOFF Reunion 2010
Make hotel reservations in Panama City,
Florida, now for the next reunion. Go to
www.edgewaterbeachresort.com
Click on “Make Reservations Now!”
Use promo code 984.
Or call 1-800-874-8686 and use the
same promo code.
Rooms are $85, and we have 60 beachfront and
25 golf course rooms. Larger suites/rooms are
available at higher rates.
Problems? Call Dan Gower at 210-379-3985.
Registration for the reunion will begin with the
Fall/Winter 2009 DUSTOFFer in
mid-November 2009.
PAGE 6
blown up this train, and he wondered
where the enemy was now—possibly
on the mountain above them, positioning an RPG to blow up the rest of it.
Shoving that thought out of his mind,
John forced his concentration back to
what he was doing. Keeping his mind
focused on what was right before him
was the only way he could overcome
thoughts of worry and fear.
The same effort continued as the
ARVNs then lifted the second patient.
Balancing the stretcher at an awkward
slant, they aimed it toward John’s feet.
John again bent down on the skid,
stretching to reach the litter handle.
Before grabbing it, he glanced down
at this patient and realized the man
did not have a head. John was looking down into a dark cavity where a
blood-smeared flap of skin—all that
was left of a neck—was folded in on
itself where this man’s head should
have been.
Immediately straightening, John
spoke into his open mike, “Mr. Stanton,
the second patient is not alive.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, sir. He has no head.”
“Then we won’t take him; we’re
not evacuating the dead,” Stanton
directed.
John waved the ARVNs off and
gestured for them to pull back, but it
was obvious they wanted John to take
the litter as the group of South Vietnamese soldiers shouted and motioned
in protest.
“They’re not too keen about us not
taking this guy,” John exhaled into his
mike.
“We’re not taking their dead,” Stanton insisted.
It was the aircraft commander’s call,
and John was relieved they wouldn’t
have to sweat to load a second litter
onboard while hovering in this precarious position. The strenuous effort could
not be justified for the dead.
Clambering back up into the cargo
bay, John signaled all clear, and Stanton
tipped the bird away from the mountain. Relieved to be in motion again,
John started an IV on the patient as
they headed to the Provincial Hospital
in Da Nang. They certainly never had
training for the mission they just flew.
Like many of their missions, it was
OJT. But they had pulled it off, and no
one had gotten hurt. 
The DUSTOFFer
CW3 Christian Wayne Beck
2008 DUSTOFF Aviator of the Year
C
W3 Christian Wayne Beck
joined the 82nd Medical Company (Air Ambulance) on 2
March 2003. He quickly progressed
and assimilated into the unit, making
a name for himself as a knowledgeable and rock-solid aviator. Only in the
unit a short time, he deployed to Iraq,
providing MEDEVAC support to U.S.
Forces moving through and liberating
Iraq in April 2003.
As a result of the rapid troop movements throughout Iraq, he was forced to
sleep, eat, and pull duty directly from
his aircraft. For three months during the
ground war, he lived like this, responding to 9-line MEDEVAC requests, flying almost 100 hours and evacuating
115 patients to higher medical care.
CW3 Beck spent nine short months
at home before deploying again to
Iraq as part of OIF II from February
2004–December 2004. He provided
critical medical evacuation support
from FO B Warhorse, to FOB Diamondback, to Baghdad. Some of the
worst fighting of the war happened on
his watch, and he completed nearly 80
MEDEVAC missions as he evacuated
more than 110 patients.
S
His tour was cut short when on
a priority 9-line mission from FOB
Normandy to LSA Anaconda, his aircraft was attacked by small arms fire.
CW3 Beck was hit in the right calf and
began bleeding profusely. No longer
on the controls and being treated by
the medic, CW3 Beck demonstrated
outstanding composure and dedication
as he continued to provide situational
awareness to the other pilot throughout
the flight.
Prior to deploying to OIF 05-07
from November 2005–October 2006,
CW3 Beck attended the Maintenance
Manager and Maintenance Test Pilot
course. This time, the 82nd MED was
supporting USMC in MNF-W. CW3
Beck was a seasoned PC and AMC for
this deployment. He used his skills to
safely evacuate nearly 100 patients and
fly more than 200 combat hours.
Finally, CW3 Beck spent nine short
months at home inducting and receiving aircraft from RESET programs
across the country, providing aircraft
for concurrent CTC rotations at NTC
and JRTC, and maintaining aircraft for
necessary RL progression flights prior
to deploying in support of OIF 07-09.
Once overseas, CW3 Beck was
charged with managing the maintenance of the company’s aircraft spread
across four separate FOBs with varying degrees of maintenance support.
He took these challenges head-on, and
his efforts led to an amazing 91% Operational Readiness rate throughout the
deployment from September 2008–December 2009, while also flying 320
hours on 180 missions.
CW3 Beck has served this unit and
the United States Army with marked
distinction for more than five years.
He has deployed four times to Iraq,
spending 40 months flying more than
725 combat hours and evacuating more
than 400 patients to lifesaving medical
care. He has helped save lives across
the country. His efforts as the Aviation
Maintenance Officer during OIF 07-09
allowed C Co. 2-1 GSAB to complete
more than 1,250 MEDEVAC missions
and evacuate 2,150 patients from the
battlefield alone. He embodies the
DUSTOFF spirit through both word
and deed. There is no more deserving
aviator than Chief Warrant Officer
Three Christian Wayne Beck.
—Dustoffer—
SSG Michael P. Miller
2008 DUSTOFF Flight Medic of the Year
taff Sergeant Michael P. Miller
received the award for his exceptional efforts as Senior Flight
Medic and Platoon Sergeant, C/6-101st
(Air Ambulance) in support of Task
Force Eagle Assault and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
during OPERATION ENDURING
FREEDOM IX.
SSG Miller proved integral to
the successful execution of numerous combat MEDEVAC operations
throughout Regional Command-South
and West (RC-South and RC-West),
demonstrating extraordinary skills as
a Flight Medic. Second Platoon took
over the MEDEVAC mission set in
January 2008 out of Kandahar Airfield,
Afghanistan.
Spring/Summer 2009
SSG Miller personally served with
distinction on more than 100 MEDEVAC missions and was responsible for
the care and survival of more than 150
casualties. His knowledge, skill, and
execution of emergency medical care
on board the UH-60A MEDEVAC aircraft proved unmatched and absolutely
flawless. On at least half of these missions, SSG Miller was able to stabilize
near-death, urgent-surgical casualties
and prepare them for reception at the
Medical Treatment Facility (MTF). In
doing so, he saved innumerable lives.
SSG Miller performed his duties
in the harshest conditions found in
any theater where the Army currently
operates. He was able to execute his
lifesaving skills in turbulent weather,
extremely high altitudes, below freezing temperatures, and at temperatures
over 140 degrees Fahrenheit. His skill
in execution is superior, and he is respected and looked up to by all other
flight medics, for guidance, mentoring,
and instruction.
SSG Miller served as the Second
Platoon Sergeant and performed his
leadership and mentor duties flawlessly. His ability to lead the nine
Non-Commissioned Officers and four
enlisted Soldiers during the first five
months of the deployment was both
skillful and remarkable.
In May 2008, the Platoon was
supplemented by eight more NCOs
(Flight Medic, continued on page 8.)
PAGE 7
O
SSG James J. Frailey
2008 DUSTOFF Crew Chief of the Year
two patients were trapped on a sheer
mountainside high above the valley
floor, exposed to enemy fire and extreme weather, including rain, hail,
and relentless winds. The enemy ambush and ensuing firefight had already
claimed the lives of two U.S. Soldiers
and wounded four others.
The steep terrain was densely
vegetated, requiring precise clearing
instructions and decisive direction
from SSG Frailey to the pilots for
them to maneuver into position and
successfully hoist the patients off the
mountainside. SSG Frailey’s exceptional clearing instructions allowed the
pilots to maneuver their aircraft within
10 feet of a rock face and directly over
multiple obstacles. With SSG Frailey’s
expert control and manipulation, he
was able to insert the medic onto the
steep cliff face.
Additionally, SSG Frailey lowered
medical equipment with pinpoint accuracy crucial to the completion of the
(Flight Medic, continued from page 7.) age to two additional sites and into
and three more enlisted Soldiers from an additional Regional Command,
Korea, including three new Flight Med- RC-West. SSG Miller was integral in
ics. SSG Miller managed the successful the mission analysis and execution of
merge of training plans, equipment, expanding coverage from 25% to 38%
and logistics. As the Senior Flight of the Combined Joint Operational
Medic, SSG Miller took charge of the Area of Afghanistan.
From January 2008 through Octomedical progression and evaluations
ber
2008, the Platoon has flown over
of the seven Flight Medics by person500
MEDEVAC missions in support
ally developing multiple programs and
of
RC
South and West, leading to a
training checklists that helped to ensure
total
of
over 650 combat MEDEVAC
medical skills remained sharp and to
flight
hours
flown and over 650 patients
manage progression in his absence.
evacuated.
SSG Miller supervised the Patient
Constantly striving for perfection
Care Reports of the over 500 missions
in
executing
MEDEVAC missions,
and debriefed the Flight Medics after
SSG
Miller
served
as the primary
missions; especially concerning care
liaison
Non-Commissioned
Officer in
that they rendered to patients to share
advising
the
Task
Force
and
Role III
lessons learned and to ease the transion
MEDEVAC
procedures
from
the
tion from peacetime medic experimedic
side.
He
helped
streamline
the
ence to dealing with combat trauma
process
from
receipt
of
a
9-line
request
victims.
SSG Miller showed sophistication to crew launch and final arrival at the
in his leadership style that is rarely seen Role III and care at the Medical Treatin either the enlisted or commissioned ment Facility. By constantly working
ranks. His ability to lead by example, toward improvements in the system, he
mentor, manage, and administrate, all persevered and helped to ensure that the
while performing the duties of his posi- ultimate mission of providing optimal
tion as a Flight Medic, was extraordi- and timely evacuation and en route care
to patients was accomplished.
nary and superior in every way.
In addition to his duties, SSG Miller
Operationally, SSG Miller proved
volunteered
his own time to share his
invaluable in initiating, streamlining,
vast
experience,
knowledge, and skills
and sustaining the MEDEVAC mission
by
teaching
the
Combat Life Saver
set for Task Force Eagle Assault. Be(CLS)
course
to
more
than 22 soldiers
tween January 2008 and June 2008, the
from
Task
Force
Eagle
Assault. AdPlatoon provided coverage by basing
ditionally,
he
created
a
shorter,
eightcrews out of three locations: Kandahar,
hour
version
of
the
CLS
course,
which
Qalat, and Tarin Kowt. Since June, the
Platoon expanded MEDEVAC cover- over the course of the deployment,
contributed to educating more than 75
Coalition Soldiers from Canada, the
Netherlands, Norway, Britain, and various other Coalition countries. These
classes were vital in giving allied nation
service members the ability to stabilize
and save the lives of their own.
Finally, SSG Miller took on the
responsibilities of trainer to the Afghanistan National Army (ANA)
Flight Medic Training Program. In
this capacity, he supervised and trained
five Flight Medics, one Nurse, and two
Physician Assistants until they were
able to work autonomously in the back
of a MEDEVAC aircraft. Due in large
part to SSG Miller’s devotion, patience,
and mentoring skills, the ANA is well
on its way to producing and sustaining
its own MEDEVAC capability.
SSG Michael Miller always leads
by example, ensuring that the Platoon
is fully trained and prepared to conduct
multi-faceted combat MEDEVAC operations. Without a doubt, his personal
performance in combat set an example
for all to follow. His attitude, decisionmaking processes under stressful conditions, and competency undoubtedly
have resulted in saving innumerable
lives. SSG Miller’s unwaivering dedication to the mission, leadership, selfless service professionalism, and regard
for the safety and security of his Soldiers is exemplary and in keeping with
the finest traditions of DUSTOFF.
n 6 September 2008, SSG
James J. Frailey distinguished
himself by heroically participating in aerial combat operations near
the Korengal Outpost, Afghanistan.
SSG Frailey’s actions on this day saved
the lives of his entire crew, as well as
two critically wounded U.S. Soldiers
isolated on rugged terrain.
SSG Frailey was serving as the crew
chief on an urgent 9-line MEDEVAC
mission in the Korengal Valley. The
PAGE 8
(Crew Chief, continued on page 9.)
—DUSTOFFer—
The DUSTOFFer
A
Charley Company—3/82—GSAB
2008 DUSTOFF Rescue of the Year
t 1230Z, on 9 November 2007,
the crews of Dustoff 30 and 31,
and Gunmetal 71 and 75 were
alerted for a high-risk mission, due
to both zero illumination and enemy
situation. Departing JAF with a vague
casualty count and location, the flight
raced toward a unit that was currently
being ambushed in a remote valley of
the Nuristan Province.
Stopping en route at FOB Blessing,
DO 30 and DO 31 held on the ground,
while GM 71 and 75 pushed ahead to
provide direct support to the ground
unit, Chosen 12, and to ensure the
enemy situation was safe enough to
begin hoist operations. While waiting
at FOB Blessing, the Dustoff crews
learned there were at least 12 casualties
spread between two friendly locations
throughout the ambush location. Rock
6, the ground force battalion commander, passed a tentative location for
the second location and the last known
enemy positions. Additionally, there
were an unknown number of deceased
that would also require extraction to
free the ground unit to maneuver.
GM 71 and 75 returned to Blessing
after about 30 minutes to escort the
Dustoff aircraft to the extraction site.
DO 30, commanded by CPT Clayton
Horney, initially held south of the
objective, as DO 31 located the first extraction site. DO 31 came to a hover at
the base of a U-shaped canyon 500 feet
across, made of steep walls crisscrossed
with goat trails. DO 31 put their flight
medic, SSG Peter Rohrs, on the ground
with Chosen 12, to assess the casualties
and determine the exact location of the
second extraction site.
SSG Rohrs found that a total of
seven U.S. Soldiers had slid approximately 150 meters down the canyon
wall to the canyon floor during the
initial ambush. One had been killed
during the initial ambush; the other
six surviving Soldiers had a variety
of injuries, all consisting of multiple
gunshot and/or shrapnel wounds. Only
two were physically able to assist,
and they were pulling security for the
group. The casualty collection point
sat against the steep canyon wall to
the north and a creek to the south. One
Soldier, who had three gunshot wounds
to his shoulders, pulled security to the
west. Another Soldier, with a gunshot
wound to his right arm, pulled security
to the east.
The three most seriously wounded
Soldiers were arrayed in the middle of
the perimeter, along with the Hero. The
final patient lay on the west side of the
perimeter. SSG Rohrs immediately triaged the Soldiers and then focused his
efforts on clearly the most seriously injured with a gunshot wound to his right
(Rescue, continued on page 10.)
(Crew Chief, continued from page 8.)
cockpit. The hoist was still unresponsive to these controls.
The weather at this point had deteriorated, with visibility falling below 50
feet, causing the pilots to lose all visual
reference points. This forced the crew
to now rely solely on SSG Frailey’s
obstacle clearance to keep from drifting
into the mountainside. He continued
to provide clearing instructions to the
pilots and manipulate the hoist as he
battled the gusting winds, which tossed
the patient and flight medic still dangling on the jungle penetrator.
As the pilots maneuvered the
aircraft away from the mountainside
with the medic and patient still hanging precariously from the hoist, SSG
Frailey continued to troubleshoot the
hoist malfunction while battling the
hoist cable to keep the two individuals
from swinging out of control.
The hoist suddenly lurched, dropping the patient and flight medic five
feet. Instantly, SSG Frailey switched
from the standard operational speed to
slow speed mode, resulting in temporary control and saving the lives of the
flight medic and patient.
Operating the hoist in a degraded
mode, SSG Frailey slowly raised the
hoist high enough to move the patient
and flight medic into the aircraft, at
which point the hoist failed completely.
Despite the malfunction of the hoist,
the severe hailstorm, and the maneuvering aircraft, SSG Frailey maintained
control of the hoist, ultimately saving
the lives of the flight medic and final
patient. Throughout the entire ordeal
SSG Frailey was relied on solely for obstacle avoidance, as the pilots had lost
all visual references while maneuvering
within 10 feet of a sheer cliff face.
SSG Frailey’s professional expertise, dedication, and disregard for his
own safety were essential in the successful completion of the MEDEVAC
mission. His actions that day resulted
in saving the lives of the two critically
wounded U.S. Soldiers, as well as the
lives of his entire crew. For his actions this day, SSG Frailey has been
nominated for the Distinguished Flying Cross.
mission. Meanwhile, their Apache escort was engaged by and hit with enemy
fire, forcing their departure.
As the mission progressed, weather
continually deteriorated, causing further difficulties for the crew. A storm
descended upon the valley, inundating the mountainside with torrential
showers and hail, causing all aviation
assets to withdraw with the exception
of the MEDEVAC’s single remaining
Apache escort. Maintaining composure, SSG Frailey held his position in
the door disregarding his exposure to
the ongoing firefight and the devastating hailstorm.
Because of the degrading weather,
the final hoist carried both the last
patient and flight medic. As the hoist
neared the helicopter, it suddenly seized
up, stopping 10 feet below the helicopter. SSG Frailey immediately notified
the crew of the hoist’s mechanical
failure, simultaneously troubleshooting
the problem. He then directed the pilots
to override the hoist controls from the
master control panel located in the
Spring/Summer 2009
—DUSTOFFer—
PAGE 9
(Rescue, continued from page 9.)
hip, another gunshot wound to his left
thigh, and two more gunshot wounds
to his right thigh. SSG Rohrs worked
feverishly to control the bleeding and
keep him alive.
While SSG Rohrs stabilized and
rigged him for hoist, one of the Soldiers
pulling perimeter guard called for him.
SSG Rohrs ran to his position and saw
that an unknown individual with an
AK-47 was approaching the perimeter.
As they tried to positively identify him,
he disappeared back into the darkness.
SSG Rohrs requested assistance from
the attack aircraft to secure the east side
of the site and returned to his patient.
DO31 repositioned away from the
scene and called in DO 30 to locate
the additional wounded farther up the
cliff from where SSG Rohrs had been
inserted. DO 30 initially went to the
second grid coordinate given by Rock
6. Winding back and forth in a narrow
river canyon, the crew struggled to
search for the isolated and wounded
Soldiers.
After 20 minutes of searching, they
determined the grid was faulty, since it
placed them a significant distance from
DO 31’s extraction location. Adopting a
new strategy, they flew to SSG Rohrs’s
position and had him walk the aircraft
up the cliff through radio commands
until the DO 30 crew chief, SGT Isaac
Johnson, spotted the wounded soldiers
on a narrow goat path, approximately
200 feet up the cliff from SSG Rohrs.
At this point, both DO 30 and 31
were fuel-critical, due to the time spent
holding at both Blessing and at the
scene. As the flight AMC, CPT Horney
made the decision to wait on initiating
operations at the upper site to allow
DO 31 to use the remaining fuel to
evacuate the most critical patient from
the site that SSG Rohrs was currently
assessing.
As DO 30 held off-station to allow
DO 31 back into the confined area, SSG
Rohrs sent up one urgent U.S. casualty
on the hoist, choosing to remain onstation to treat the remaining wounded
while both aircraft made a trip to Abad
to transport the wounded soldier and
take on fuel.
The flight departed, and SSG Rohrs
continued treating the remaining patients. Again the perimeter guard called
PAGE 10
for SSG Rohrs. The unknown individual was again approaching through
the darkness.
After repeated unsuccessful verbal
attempts to stop the man, SSG Rohrs
instructed the Soldier to fire a warning
shot. The armed individual continued
to advance, threatening their position. SSG Rohrs determined that the
individual had to be neutralized. The
perimeter Soldier fired one shot, and
the man fell. While the perimeter
guard covered him, SSG Rohrs left
the perimeter and disarmed, searched,
and began treating the man’s gunshot
wound through his lower abdomen. He
controlled the bleeding and dragged
him into the perimeter, where he and
the perimeter guard could watch him
while continuing their duties.
As he returned to treating the casualties in the center of the CCP, an
RPG suddenly exploded against the
wall directly above them. Debris rained
down around him, but uninjured by the
blast, SSG Rohrs continued his work on
the wounded.
As SSG Rohrs continued working
in the center of the perimeter, a mortar
round impacted approximately 25 feet
from their position. SSG Rohrs, once
again disregarding his own personal
safety, exposed himself and went man
to man throughout the perimeter,
ensuring no one had taken any additional shrapnel wounds. As he moved,
gunshots rang out from above them
on the ridgeline. SSG Rohrs immediately dragged his patients into a more
protected position, ensuring that they
were shielded from the incoming small
arms fire.
Upon reaching Abad, DO 30 and
DO 31 off loaded the urgent patient
and took on fuel. They immediately
departed for the ambush site to resume rescue operations. The crews
were required to wait at Blessing for
the return of their gunship escorts, as
they had also departed for refuel and
rearmament.
Once all four aircraft had linked up
again, they departed to the north. En
route, CPT Horney briefed that both
aircraft would attempt to conduct hoist
operations at the same time, since the
large number of casualties, combined
with the limited fuel status, would result in a total mission time far beyond
acceptable if the aircraft took turns
conducting hoist operations.
To attempt this safely, DO 30 led
into the narrow canyon. The extremely
steep and confined terrain made it
possible to set up for a hoist in only
one position, with the right side of the
aircraft parallel to the cliff face, since
the hoist was located in the right cabin
door. As the SGT Johnson attempted
to maneuver the aircraft into a position
so the medic could be safely lowered
to the 24” goat path below, he was
required to call the aircraft so close to
the terrain that the rotor system cleared
the adjacent cliff by no more than five
feet.
CPT Horney, sitting in the left seat,
hovered the aircraft through the right
side pilot’s window. Realizing that
it would be impossible to sustain the
operation for extended periods in this
condition, he looked to his pilot, 1LT
Eric Doe. CPT Horney slowly transferred the controls, taking care not to
allow the aircraft to drift. After establishing a hover at the upper evacuation
site, CPT Horney called DO 31 into
position above SSG Rohrs at the lower
evacuation site. Once both aircraft were
in position, DO 30 and DO 31 began
hoist operations in parallel positions on
the same cliff face, separated vertically
by 200 feet.
DO 30’s medic, SGT Shon Crowley, was hoisted down to the patients
below. Once on the ground, SGT Crowley proceeded to triage and provide
care to the casualties. There were two
U.S. Soldiers with injuries, four ANA
soldiers with injuries, and two U.S. KIA
spread on the narrow goat trail.
The site was very confined and difficult to hover over, as well as difficult
to hoist into, since the steep terrain
required the aircraft to constantly hug
the nearby cliff. SGT Crowley hoisted
the first U.S. Soldier to the aircraft,
followed by the four ANA Soldiers.
SGT Crowley also sent up a load of all
the wounded soldiers’ equipment and
sensitive items.
Finally, after over an hour and a half
of holding the aircraft in the motionless
position above, the last U.S. Soldier
went up the hoist with SGT Crowley.
During this entire time, CPT Horney
kept a watchful eye on the nearby rock
ledge and his sister ship, which could
be seen in his chin bubble.
(Rescue, continued on page 11.)
The DUSTOFFer
The High Ground
A
An excerpt from the writing of Robert Clark, a Vietnam Veteran.
couple of years ago someone
asked me if I still thought about
Vietnam. I nearly laughed in
their face. How do you stop thinking
about it? Every day for the last 24
years I wake up with it and go to bed
with it.
But this is what I said. “Yeah, I think
about it. I can’t quit thinking about it.
I never will. But, I’ve also learned to
live with it. I’m comfortable with the
memories. I’ve learned to stop trying to
forget and learned instead to embrace it.
It just doesn’t scare me anymore.”
A psychologist once told me that
not being affected by the experience
over there would be abnormal. When
he told me that, it was like he’d just
given me a pardon. It was as if he said,
“Go ahead and feel something about
the place, Bob. It ain’t going nowhere.
You’re gonna wear it for the rest of your
life. Might as well get to know it.”
A lot of my “brothers” haven’t been
so lucky. For them the memories are too
painful, their sense of loss too great. My
sister told me of a friend she has whose
husband was in the Nam. She asks this
guy when he was there.
Here’s what he said, “Just last
night.” It took my sister a while to
figure out what he was talking about.
JUST LAST NIGHT. Yeah, I was in
(Rescue, continued from page 10.)
was reported by the ground unit several
times during DO 30 and DO 31’s time
on station, but the crews decided to
ignore these distractions and trust in
their gunship escorts above. The AMC
decided that the KIAs would be left at
this time, due to the urgency of their
six patients and their critically low
fuel status.
With the evacuation of all casualties
complete, DO 30 and DO 31 departed
for Abad, where they transferred patients to the FST and DO 26 and DO 27,
who were waiting for their arrival.
Once refuel operations were complete, the crews requested a flight hour
extension and permission to return to
the ambush site to recover the bodies
of the fallen Soldiers who had been
left behind on the previous lift. Linked
up with their gunship escorts, DO 30
and 31 proceeded up the valley to the
ambush site for the third time. Having
briefed to conduct this third turn in the
same manner as the second, DO 30
established position high on the cliff
Below, DO 31 was now established
at a hover in the same location as
before, but with the added difficulty
of DO 30’s downwash from the cliff
above. Additionally, CW3 Ryan and
CW2 Carson fought to make out the
terrain below, since their goggles were
periodically washed out by a fire that
burned at the hoist site.
Despite the difficult situation,
the DO 31 crew chief, SPC Johns,
conducted five patient hoists, a fallen
comrade hoist, and a gear hoist. CW3
Ryan and CW2 Carson were required to
relieve each other from the stresses of
hovering the aircraft in the amazingly
difficult conditions.
Finally, after over an hour and a half
of holding the aircraft in the motionless
position above, SSG Rohrs was hoisted
out with the last patient, totaling eight
back to back iterations.
During this entire time, CW3 Ryan
kept watch over his focused crew and
his sister ship, above them. Enemy fire
Spring/Summer 2009
You don’t want to make
a lot of friends when
the possibility of dying
is that real, that close.
When you do, friends
become a liability.
the Nam. When? JUST LAST NIGHT.
During sex with my wife. And on my
way to work this morning. Over my
lunch hour. Yeah, I was there.
My sister says I’m not the same
brother who went to Vietnam. My
wife says I won’t let people get close
to me, not even her. They are probably
both right.
Ask a vet about making friends in
Nam. It was risky. Why? Because we
were in the business of death, and death
was with us all the time. It wasn’t the
death of, “If I die before I wake.” This
was the real thing. The kind where boys
scream for their mothers. The kind that
lingers in your mind and becomes more
real each time you cheat it. You don’t
want to make a lot of friends when the
possibility of dying is that real, that
close. When you do, friends become
a liability.
A guy named Bob Flanigan was
my friend. Bob Flanigan is dead. I put
him in a bodybag one sunny day, April
29, 1969. We’d been talking, only a
few minutes before he was shot, about
what we were going to do when we got
back in the world. Now, this was a guy
who had come in country the same time
as me. A guy who was loveable and
(Ground, continued on page 12.)
and then called DO 31 into their position below.
SGT Johnson and SPC Johns once
again lowered SGT Crowley and SSG
Rohrs into position, where they sent
up the final KIAs, followed by the
remaining equipment. As DO 30 and
DO 31 completed the final hoists of the
operation, they retrieved their medics
and set off for Abad.
As they off loaded the KIAs at
Abad, they learned they had one
remaining mission: the transport of
four urgent litters, from earlier in
the mission, to Jalalabad. Arriving at
home station early in the morning,
both aircraft shut down after nine
hours of the most demanding, zero illumination, mountain hoist operations
the crewmembers had ever experienced in their Army Aviation careers.
—DUSTOFFer—
PAGE 11
(Ground, continued from page 11.)
generous. He had blue eyes and sandy
blond hair.
When he talked, it was with a soft
drawl. Flanigan was a hick and he
knew it. That was part of his charm. He
didn’t care. Man, I loved this guy like
the brother I never had. But I screwed
up. I got too close to him. Maybe I
didn’t know any better, but I broke one
of the unwritten rules of war: DON’T
GET CLOSE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE
GOING TO DIE. Sometimes you can’t
help it.
You hear vets use the term “buddy”
when they refer to a guy they spent the
war with. “Me and this buddy a mine.”
“Friend” sounds too intimate, doesn’t
it? “Friend” calls up images of being
close. If he’s a friend, then you are going to be hurt if he dies, and war hurts
enough without adding to the pain. Get
close; get hurt. It’s as simple as that.
In war you learn to keep people at
that distance my wife talks about. You
become so good at it, that 20 years after
the war, you still do it without thinking.
You won’t allow yourself to be vulnerable again.
My wife knows two people who can
get into the soft spots inside me. My
daughters—I know it probably bothers
her that they can do this. It’s not that
I don’t love my wife; I do. She’s put
up with a lot from me. She’ll tell you
that when she signed-on for better or
worse, she had no idea there was going
to be so much of the latter. But with my
daughters it’s different.
My girls are mine. They’ll always
be my kids. Not marriage, not distance,
not even death can change that. They
are something on this earth that can
never be taken away from me. I belong
to them. Nothing can change that. I
can have an ex-wife; but my girls can
never have an ex-father. There’s the
difference.
I can still see the faces, though they
all seem to have the same eyes.
When I think of us, I always see a
line of “dirty grunts” sitting on a paddy
dike. We’re caught in the first gray
silver between darkness and light. That
first moment when we know we’ve survived another night, and the business of
staying alive for one more day is about
to begin. There was so much hope in
that brief space of time. It’s what we
PAGE 12
used to pray for. “One more day, God,
one more day.”
And I can hear our conversations
as if they’d only just been spoken. I
still hear the way we sounded, the hard
cynical jokes, our morbid senses of humor. We were scared to death of dying
and trying our best not to show it.
I recall the smells, too. Like the
way cordite hangs on the air after a
firefight, or the pungent odor of rice
paddy mud—so different from the
black dirt of Iowa. The mud of Nam
smells ancient, somehow—like it’s
I remember once looking at the man next to
me as a flare floated
overhead. The shadows
around his eyes were so
deep, it looked like his
eyes were gone.
always been there. And I’ll never forget
the way blood smells, sticky and drying
on my hands. I spent a long night that
way once. That memory isn’t going
anywhere.
I remember how the night jungle
appears almost dreamlike as the pilot
of a Cessna buzzes overhead, dropping
parachute flares until morning. That
artificial sun would flicker and make
shadows run through the jungle. It was
worse than not being able to see what
was out there sometimes. I remember
once looking at the man next to me as
a flare floated overhead. The shadows
around his eyes were so deep, it looked
like his eyes were gone.
I reached over and touched him
on the arm; without looking at me,
he touched my hand. “I know, man. I
know.” That’s what he said. It was a
human moment. Two guys a long way
from home and scared s-----ss. “I know,
man” And at that moment he did.
God, I loved those guys. I hurt every
time one of them died. We all did. Despite our posturing, despite our desire
to stay disconnected, we couldn’t help
ourselves. I know why Tim O’Brien
writes his stories. I know what gives
Bruce Weigle the words to create
poems so honest I cry at their horrible
beauty. It’s love. Love for those guys
we shared the experience with.
We did our jobs like good Soldiers,
and we tried our best not to become as
hard as our surroundings. We touched
each other and said, “I know.”
Like a mother holding a child in
the middle of a nightmare, “It’s going
to be all right.” We tried not to lose
touch with our humanity. We tried to
walk that line. To be the good boys
our parents had raised and not to give
into that unnamed thing we knew was
inside us all.
You want to know what frightening
is? It’s a 19-year-old boy who’s had a
sip of that power over life and death
that war gives you. It’s a boy who,
despite all the things he’s been taught,
knows that he likes it.
It’s a 19-year-old who’s just lost
a friend and is angry and scared and
determined that, “Some *@#*s gonna
pay!” To this day, the thought of that
boy can wake me from a sound sleep
and leave me staring at the ceiling.
As I write this, I have a picture in
front of me. It’s of two young men. On
their laps are tablets. One is smoking a
cigarette. Both stare without expression
at the camera. They’re writing letters.
Staying in touch with places they would
rather be. Places and people they hope
to see again.
The picture shares space in a frame
with one of my wife. She doesn’t mind.
She knows she’s been included in special company. She knows I’ll always
love those guys who shared that part
of my life, a part she never can.
And she understands how I feel
about the ones I know are out there yet.
The ones who still answer the question,
“When were you in Vietnam?”
“Hey, man, I was there just last
night.” 
The DUSTOFFer
Duty, Pride, and Sikorsky Helicopters
An article from the Q4 2008 issue of the Sikorsky Frontlines.
I
t began as another hot day in
southern Iraq when C Company,
1st/126th Battalion, got the call.
An Improvised Explosive Device (IED)
attack on a convoy in southern Iraq had
left three Soldiers critically wounded,
and a sandstorm was causing near-zero
visibility for their rescue.
Even before the MEDEVAC unit
could get off the ground, word came
that one of the Soldiers had died fro m
his injuries. There was no time to wait.
Flying a UH-60A, the unit maneuvered
through visibility of one-quarter- to
one-half-mile, doing 50 to 60 knots
to the pickup site at an altitude of 250
feet, to the Soldiers in need of lifesaving care.
Once there, they faced another crisis
situation. With low visibility in most
directions, the unit had to head for
Tallil Air Base, southeast of Baghdad.
With almost two miles of visibility, it
was the only choice, said unit member
CW4 Jon Campbell.
“The flight to Tallil took about 40
minutes, and our medics were very
busy for the duration of the flight providing care for the two patients. Both
Soldiers survived because of the efforts
of our crews,” Campbell said.
Later that day as the unit returned
to its operating base, Polish Soldiers
operating the control offered a friendly
compliment. “They told us that we were
the ‘best pilots in the world,’” Campbell said. “While I appreciate that comment, I feel we could not have done that
mission without being in a helicopter
that is so user-friendly.”
Richardson said the helicopters have held up well
under tough conditions.
. . . “A lot of the credit
goes to maintenance and
crew chiefs; however,
the Black Hawk is an
excellent aircraft.”
Stories like this are the daily work
of the unit, a regiment of the Maine
Army National Guard. The unit’s
soldiers deployed to Operation Iraqi
Freedom hail from six states, but they
have formed a bond through repeat
tours of duty and a common love for
the helicopters they fly.
Among them is CW4 John Richardson, a purchasing agent at Sikorsky,
who is on his fifth career deployment,
returning from Iraq after his military
retirement in 2004.
“When my unit was called up for
another tour, I was asked if I would
consider going back with them,” said
Richardson. “I felt that we were doing
a good thing for the Iraqi people, and
felt it was my duty to return. I could
not think that the Iraq war was justified
for others to go if I was not willing to
go myself.”
Richardson said the helicopters have
held up well under tough conditions. “It
is very dusty and extremely hot, and
the aircraft continue to perform and
provide us with the platforms required
to meet our mission requirements. A lot
of the credit goes to maintenance and
crew chiefs; however, the Black Hawk
is an excellent aircraft,” he said.
These helicopters are the primary
tool used by the battalion, with flight
crews on standby 24 hours every day,
seven days a week. The unit provides
aeromedical evacuation for southern
Iraq, employing the disciplines of Operations, Maintenance, and Administration to get the job done.
As of 24 November 2008, the unit
had flown more than 2900 hours, supporting 585 MEDEVAC missions. The
unit is expected to return home at the
end of December. 
Unit Living Rescue Motto: “That Others May Live”
The 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard is a Combat
Search and Rescue (CSAR) unit of the
Air Force located at Moffett Federal
airfield in the San Francisco Bay area.
The unit operates HH-60G Pave Hawk
helicopters equipped with essential
mission items that allow the unit to
conduct lifesaving operations in all
weather conditions, day and night, as
well as aerial refueling to extend their
mission radius indefinitely.
With more than 597 rescues credited to the 129th RQW throughout its
history, this unit was once again put to
the test when its crews were dispatched
to conduct an over-water rescue more
than 550 miles in the Pacific Ocean just
Spring/Summer 2009
hours after participating in forest fire
operations in Northern California.
On 16 July 2008, the 129th was
completing its third week of aerial firefighting when the Coast Guard alerted
them of a Canadian fisherman who
was severely ill at sea. Coast Guard
boats would not be able to reach the
boat in time to treat the fisherman, so
the 129th was tasked to perform this
lifesaving event.
Due to the unique configuration
requirements to perform aerial firefighting and open ocean rescue, the 129th
Maintenance Squadron worked diligently to convert the aircraft to a rescue
mission-ready status in just under two
hours—a collective effort to achieve a
common goal.
To reach and treat the patient quickly, USAF pararescuemen (PJs) were
transported to the rescue site in a C-130
aircraft. The PJs boarded the boat with
the necessary medical services to stabilize the patient. They then waited for the
Pave Hawk helicopters to arrive to hoist
them and the patient to safety.
The rescue is typical of USAF
CSAR units located throughout the
world where the mission requirements
dictate maximum flexibility to perform
multiple missions. The training, operations tempo, and aircraft availability
rates demand maximum performance
from the personnel and their equipment. 
PAGE 13
AIR AMBULANCE CREWS IN RISKY JOBS
An article by Alan Levin in USA Today, Wednesday, 4 February 2009, addresses the National Transportation Safety Board’s
examination of the increasing fatal aeromedical helicopter crashes.
Washington—Air Ambulance helicopters have the worst fatal crash record in
aviation, and their crews are among the
most likely to die on the job, an expert
told a panel of federal investigators
Tuesday.
The rate of fatalities per 100,000
air ambulance employees over the
past 10 years exceeds other dangerous
professions, such as logging or deepsea fishing, said Ira Blumen, program
director of the University of Chicago
Aeromedical Network.
Blumen’s comments came during
the first day of a hearing by the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB),
which is examining the industry’s burgeoning accidents.
“It’s a high-risk occupation. It’s
alarming,” Blumen said.
Relatively few patients have died:
34 out of 4.3 million transported since
1972, Blument said. It’s unclear why;
one possible explanation is that air ambulance flights spend more time flying
without a patient than while carrying
one. A typical emergency run involves
three trips: one to pick up the patient;
another to transport the victim; and a
third to return to the helicopter base
after the patient is dropped off.
Another reason is that crewmembers outnumber patients three or four
to one on flights.
Tearful relatives of recent crash
victims demanded that the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) take
action to stem the death toll. Steve
Ogletree, 44, an airport manager whose
14 month-old granddaughter, Kirstin
Lockinger, died in a crash October
15th, said he was stunned by how
lightly the government regulates the
industry compared with airlines. “I say
to the FAA, shame on you,” Ogletree
said.
The FAA has pushed the industry to
adopt stricter safety standards but has
emphasized voluntary change because
it can be accomplished faster than writing new regulations, FAA spokesman
Les Dorr said.
Since 1972, 264 people have died
in air ambulance crashes, according
to Blumen. Nine fatal crashes since
December 2007 have killed 35 people.
That’s the highest death toll in the industry’s history.
The accident statistics for the U.S.
stand in stark contrast to Canada, which
has not had a fatality since 1977. Unlike
most companies in the United States,
Canada requires two pilots on each
helicopter, and flights are conducted
under more rigorous standards for
weather, said Sylvain Seguin, a vice
president of Canadian Helicopters.
The NTSB hearing is trying to pinpoint what could be driving the recent
increase in fatal crashes. Several witnesses raised concerns about whether
competition to make the helicopter
flights—which can pay as much as
$10,000—could be driving up the accident rates.
“The safety board is concerned
that these types of accidents will continue if a concerted effort is not made
to improve,” NTSB member Robert
Sumwalt said. 
The 498th in Iraq: In Their Own Words
In their Own Words: The 498th
Medical Company (Air Ambulance)
in Iraq is now posted on the website
of the Office of Medical History, Office of the Surgeon General, at <http://
history.amedd.army.mil>. The book is
located under Books and Documents:
Operation Iraqi Freedom. Publication
to a print version is pending.
This book is a collection of interviews by COL (Ret) Richard Ginn with
members of the 498th upon their return
from Iraq, where they supported the 1st
Marine Expeditionary Force from the
commencement of hostilities to the fall
of Baghdad.
The manuscript length is 222
pages and includes an introduction,
PAGE 14
unit history, timeline, detailed listing
of acronyms and technical words, and
accounts of the advance on Baghdad by
the leaders of the company’s forward
medical support teams.
Introduction: The 498th served with
the Marines in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This was the first
time an Army DUSTOFF unit was
placed with the Marines in direct support of combat operations. It deployed
from Fort Benning, Georgia, to Kuwait
in January 2003, where it was attached
to the Marines, who “scratched and
clawed” their way to Baghdad, meeting
heavy resistance in town after town.
In Iraq, the 498th, nominally assigned to the 3rd Medical Command,
was attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF), the threestar command home-based at Camp
Pendleton, California, that commanded
all Marine units in the theater. It was
further attached to Marine Air Group
39, a subordinate unit of the 3rd Marine
Air Wing.
The 498th was recognized for its
service by award of the Navy Unit
Commendation Medal, and it returned
to Fort Benning on 10 June 2003. In
2006, it relocated to Hunter Army
Airfield, Savannah, Georgia, and was
redesignated C Company, 2/3 Aviation,
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. 
The DUSTOFFer
New Entries on the
Flight Manifest
SGT Gary Adams
SP5 Richard Aland
SSG Gene Albee
TSGT Roberto Amador
SSG Dennis Bender
SFC Brian Brockett
COL Terrence Byrne
1LT James Caniff
PFC Joseph Connolly, II
SSG Shon Crowley
1SG Lorena Delain
SGT Jeffry Dixson
SGT Donald Dowd
MSG Jeremy Everly
SGT Rodolfo Guzman
SSG David Hannah
SFC Timothy Hare
CIV Heather Harrington
SSG Duane Harrison
CPT Clayton Horney
CPT Geoffrey Hulsey
1SG Christopher Irwin
SPC Charles Jackson
SPC Timothy Johns
SSG Jason Johnson
ENL James Kennedy
CW4 Darrel Knight
1LT Jason Krout
SGT Michael Kruse
1LT Lorna May
LTC Claude Meadows
CW2 James McCollum
BMC Sean McDonald
SSG Michael Miller
MAJ Michael Nash
SPC Frank Novak
SGT Clayton Peterson
SPC Danny Ramirez
SGT John Ripple
CPT John Robichaux
CPT Adam Schaffer
SFC Randy Scott
SGT Alan Sharp
SFC Michael Silva
1SG Robert Simmons
CPT Gabriel Spicer
SGT Nelson Stanley
CSM Harmon Thorneberry
SGT Kyle Waugh
CW2 Dustin Wilson
Nominate Your Hero
for the
DUSTOFF Hall of Fame
DUSTOFFers, don’t let our legacy go untold.
The Hall of Fame honors those who exhibited
our ethics and standards in their actions and
their contributions to DUSTOFF. Do your homework. Find out about that man or woman who
made a difference in your career by his or her
inspiration. Research your hero and nominate
them. Deadline is May 1. Details are on the
dustoff.org homepage. Click on the Hall of
Fame tab at the left of the opening page for
information. It’s OUR Hall of Fame; let’s make
it complete.
Spring/Summer 2009
We want your stories!
Share them in the DUSTOFFer
The DUSTOFFer would like to publish
your article. If you have a recollection of a
particular DUSTOFF or MAST mission, please
share it with our members. If your unit has
been involved in an outstanding rescue mission
or worthwhile program, please submit your
essay about it to The DUSTOFFer. Don’t
worry about not being the best writer. We
will edit your material professionally. Send
photographs with your article or attach them
to your e-mail.
Send typed, double-spaced hard copy to the
address below, or e-mail your article to [email protected] or [email protected].
Please send your submissions to:
The DUSTOFFer
P. O. Box 8091
San Antonio, TX 78208
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PAGE 15
New Fleet of Helicopters Flies Over Capital
An article in the 7 March 2009 Edition of the Washington Post, by Christian Davenport.
I
t was once the workhorse of the
Vietnam War, a helicopter with
a distinct thwap, thwap, thwap
that for some came to symbolize
that conflict. The Huey, reliable and
solid, is being phased out—though
some say it’s premature to write its
obituary because it’s still in use by
some units.
The event held yesterday by the
D.C. National Guard amounted to a
retirement ceremony for its fleet of
Hueys, which are being replaced by
a more modern and nimble chopper
known as the UH-72A Lakota. Pilots
stood around a parking lot near RFK
Stadium that served as a temporary
landing zone, admiring the old helicopters as if having a hard time saying goodbye. They talked about how
the aircraft, some of which date to
the late 1960s and early 1970s, were
over the Pentagon on 11 September
2001 and responded to Hurricanes
Katrina and Ike.
For the Vietnam generation, the
Huey is an “icon,” said LTC Maureen
Bellamy, who has been flying the
helicopter for 25 years. And when
she goes to aviation shows, Vietnam
veterans “come up with tears in their
eyes” and recall how, when wounded,
the sight of a Huey on the horizon
meant safety.
“The Huey is a legend,” said Tim
Smith, the aircraft maintenance officer for the Army Aviation Museum
in Fort Rucker, Alabama. “It’s been
the standard of Army Aviation for
many, many years.”
But sentimentality can’t keep
birds in the air, and the D.C. Guard’s
fleet has worn out. It was time for an
upgrade, officials said. “Some of the
aircraft we have now are 40 years
old,” Bellamy said.
The D.C. Guard’s 121st Medical
Company is getting six Lakotas at a
cost of about $5 million each, said
Bellamy, the D.C. Guard’s Army
Guard members are
often referred to as
“weekend warriors” . .
. and they often don’t
get anywhere near the
quality of equipment
that their active duty
counterparts have.
Aviation Officer. If the Huey is a
reliable Ford pickup, the Lakota is
more like a Porsche, said CPT Florian
Heithier. Compared with the Huey,
the Lakota “is better in every way,”
he said.
The Lakotas are smaller, faster,
more maneuverable and far better
for searching and rescuing. They
won’t be deployed to combat zones
overseas because they don’t have the
defensive capability. Instead, they
will be used by the 121st as an “air
ambulance” or medevac helicopter.
In cases of national emergency, such
as hurricanes, they can be deployed
across the country as needed.
In 2007, a Pentagon report found
that in hot climates the cockpit of the
Lakota could reach temperatures that
could cause some of its systems to
shut down. As a result, the helicopters
were modified, some with air conditioning and others with venting, and
the problem was fixed, said Timothy
Paynter, a spokesman for EADS, the
manufacturer.
For the National Guard, acquiring some of the newest and most
advanced technology is something
of a coup. Guard members are often
referred to as “weekend warriors”
because of their one weekend a
month training. And they often
don’t get anywhere near the quality
of equipment that their active duty
counterparts have.
At a Senate subcommittee hearing
in 2007, the former head of the National Guard Bureau, LTG H. Steven
Blum, called the Guard “the nation’s
best defense bargain.” But he illustrated the Guard’s equipment woes
by bringing an Oregon Air National
Guard staff sergeant whose combat
air controller equipment had not been
updated since 1953.
Guard officials said the new helicopters show that the Guard, which
has been called upon repeatedly since
the 11 September attacks, is finally
getting the respect it deserves. “During the Global War on Terror, the
Guard has become more and more an
equal partner,” Bellamy said. 
Pilot Philosophy
What’s the difference between a duck and a co-pilot? The duck can fly.
A check ride ought to be like a skirt. Short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover everything.
It takes only two things to fly: airspeed and money.
Aircraft identification: If it’s ugly, it’s British. If it’s weird, it’s French. If it’s ugly and weird, it’s Russian.
The similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots: If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies. If ATC screws up,
the pilot dies.
If something hasn’t broken on your helicopter, it’s about to.
Basic Flying Rules: Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of the air. The edges
of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees, and other aircraft. It is
much more difficult to fly in the edges.
PAGE 16
The DUSTOFFer
DUSTOFF UNITS FLY INTO THE
THICK OF BATTLE TO RETRIEVE CASUALTIES
Michael Gusick wrote this penetrating account of DUSTOFFers in harm’s way in Afghanistan
in the 8 December 2008 issue of Stars and Stripes.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan—A few
minutes earlier they were standing in
line for breakfast at the crowded chow
hall, reconstituted eggs puddled on the
griddle, coffee warming the Styrofoam
in their hands. Then the walkie-talkies
clipped to their pockets started talking to them. Now the two air medic
crews are pounding north into the
other side of the war in Afghanistan,
their helicopters banking down over
the pine-covered mountains of Kunar
province’s bad-legend Korengal Valley.
The red trail of a smoke grenade rises
from among the earthen roofs of a village packed between the valley walls.
Not far away stands a column of black
smoke marking where, in retrospect,
the military said a U.S. and Afghan
army patrol caught in a firefight was hit
by an errant American mortar round.
The beleaguered patrol is holed
up in a compound in the middle of
the village, still taking fire. One U.S.
Soldier had been killed by the mortar.
A half-dozen other Soldiers—U.S. and
Afghan—are wounded. The Apache
gunships escorting the medical birds
break off and begin firing at the muzzle
flashes on the mountainsides. They
produce a lull.
The first medevac helicopter circles
down, kicking up a storm of dust and
scattering the red smoke. There is nowhere to land, and the pilot hovers at 50
meters, as the medic, Staff Sgt. Bradley
Robbins, attaches himself to a winch
and swings out through the open door.
A crew chief with a remote control
lowers him to the ground, where Robbins unclips the winch-line and goes
to work. The bird cycles out and the
second flight moves in, dropping off its
medic, Staff Sgt. Matthew Kinney.
The two men run through their triage. One Afghan soldier with an arm
and a leg blown off. An American with
an ugly shrapnel wound. An Afghan
shot in the groin, an American with a
chunk blown out of his calf. Another
Afghan with a shrapnel wound, going
pale, clinging to his cell phone. Five
minutes pass.
The gunfire picks up again, slapSpring/Summer 2009
ping down into the courtyard. The first
helicopter returns for Robbins, but by
the time he’s hoisted up two litter patients and attaches himself to the winch
line, the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2
Wayne McDonald, decides there’s no
more time to wait.
They can see bullets hitting the
ground nearby and think they could
It’s 9:30 in the morning
in one of the most dangerous, most beautiful
places in the world.
He’s staying in the moment, letting out a
steady stream of cuss
words.
feel them hitting the helicopter, and
later they find a half-dozen bullet holes
in the bird and one in the rotor blade.
So they pull out of there with Robbins
still dangling from the line.
“It was like a roller coaster,” Robbins says later, but thinks better of the
comparison. “Actually, more like a
fair ride.”
That leaves Kinney alone on the
ground with the rest of the wounded
and the rattled survivors. They try to
persuade him to evacuate the dead
soldier, but there are protocols. And
besides, there isn’t room.
Two more have been shot since
the medics arrived, so now he has five
to bring out, one by one on the winch
line, then himself. The bullets coming
in from two or three directions; he can’t
tell. His rifle lies on the ground beside
him as he works. It’s 9:30 in the morning in one of the most dangerous, most
beautiful places in the world. He’s staying in the moment, letting out a steady
stream of cuss words.
Nothing comparable
This is not an entirely typical October morning for the medevac platoon
based in Jalalabad, part of the 101st
Aviation Regiment, whose motto is
“Burning gas to save your ass.” Some
days they breakfast in peace, the
walkie-talkies quiet, and they smoke
cigars in the evening with the Apache
pilots. But it has been a year of hard
fighting at many of the U.S. outposts
(DUSTOFF, continued on page 18.)
SSG Matthew Kinney, a Flight Medic, treats a wounded U.S. Soldier,
while Crew Chief SSG James Frailey, assists. The Soldier was wounded
when his patrol came under fire from insurgents.
PAGE 17
(DUSTOFF, continued from page 17.)
scattered in northeastern Afghanistan,
and the medevac platoon has been there
for the worst of it.
There was little anywhere else to
prepare them for this, really. None of
the medics had done a real-world hoist
mission before they arrived. Few had
been shot at. Many had deployed to
Iraq, but that was nothing compared
to this.
Nothing, for example, like the morning in July when they flew into Wanat
after nine U.S. soldiers were killed
during a brazen, large-scale attack on
a patrol base. The insurgents’ fire was
still lighting up the mountainside as if
there were some huge invasion of flash
photographers.
McDonald compares it to something out of Hollywood: “It was something like I saw as a kid growing up in
the Vietnam movies. The guys were
getting dragged on ponchos. They’re
screaming. Their clothes were blown
off them. They’re burned in the face,
they’re bleeding, they’re disoriented,
and they’re just piling into the aircraft
to get out of there.”
The medics try to take a clinical
approach, which offers a certain detachment. Anyway, they don’t know
how many people they’ve saved or
how many they haven’t because they
don’t know what happens after a patient leaves their aircraft. Leaving it
that way is a recommended coping
strategy, but some of the medics still
wish they knew.
Kinney got an e-mail once from one
of the soldiers he pulled out of Wanat.
The soldier told him it was the most
amazing thing he’d ever seen, the way
they had come for them. But that was
a rarity.
Still, they don’t need Hallmark
cards to feel like they’re making a difference, and anyway most admit they
feel addicted to the adrenaline.
“Over here, I pretty much know
what’s wrong with my patients,” Kinney says. “It’s usually pretty obvious.
It’s just up to me to get my job done
and try to help them.”
His wife is a nurse, and sometimes
she tells him about her patients, people
with ailments buried deep in their bodies or their psyches. He can’t imagine
how she deals with that.
PAGE 18
“It hurts”
Two days before the Korengal mission, another crew was called out after
a U.S. convoy hit a roadside bomb
in Kunar province. It was a convoy
of heavily armored Mine Resistant
Ambush Protected vehicles, designed
to survive. But there was a Humvee
in the middle of the convoy where the
blast had hit.
What was left of it—a charred frame
and some bits of twisted metal—looked
more like the remnant of a bombed
swing set than a military vehicle. Three
of the occupants were killed and lay on
But at the end of the
day, you really can’t
beat what we do. Going out flying and knowing that your’re saving
lives, it doesn’t get any
more rewarding than
that.
the ground where they’d been thrown.
A fourth was alive but drifting in root
reflexes, eyes shut.
There was some gunfire. Possibly
some of the soldiers were hunting
down a triggerman who might have
been in a tree. Or that was the story Sgt.
Adam Connaughton, a medic, picked
up from one of the soldiers standing
near the bodies, though it was kind of
scattered.
That was a commonality about arriving at scenes like this, Connaughton
and other medics said.
“I was talking to the guy and it
was like he was there, but he wasn’t
always there. It was like they were all
shell-shocked, couldn’t believe what
just happened. I’ve seen that a couple
times.”
Capt. Justin Madill, the platoon’s
flight surgeon, knelt over one of the
three killed in action. The other two
were obviously dead, but Madill stayed
with this one, trying to find a pulse or
some response, slapping him on the
face and the chest. He got nothing.
They hustled the surviving casualty to
the helicopter and left—they got him
back alive, but Madill was still thinking
about it the next day.
“I tend to think as if I were in a
major medical center and not on the
battlefield,” he says. “As a doctor, you
know, we left him there. And coming
back I was thinking, I am 99.5 percent
sure that that individual was dead, but
in the back of my mind there’s a little
sliver that’s thinking, ‘What if?’”
When the adrenaline fades, other
things linger.
“You get caught up in the moment,”
Connaughton says. “But after all is said
and done, you know . . . it hurts.”
Talking things over
There aren’t a lot of ways to blow
off steam. After a tough mission, Connaughton sometimes takes himself
out for pizza, his favorite food, at the
airfield’s trailer-ized Pizza Hut. Otherwise, there’s the gym and video games.
The medics don’t talk to their families
in any detail about what they’re doing.
They do talk to one another. Along
the way, they pick up a lot of Afghan
children—kids dying of treatable
diseases, kids who’ve fallen off the
roof, kids hit by cars. And there’s one
common conversation topic: What do
they find more upsetting, hurt kids or
hurt Americans? Both, obviously, but
it’s not so much an abstract question
as an experiential inquiry—which was
actually more upsetting.
But if they’ve seen some horrible
things, at least none of that was their
fault.
“We’ll walk away with some memories that we probably wish we didn’t
have,” says the platoon leader, Capt.
Ben Seipel. “But at the end of the day,
you really can’t beat what we do. Going out flying and knowing that you’re
saving lives, it doesn’t get any more
rewarding than that.”
And there is also the other thing.
Connaughton felt it after his second
mission, left behind by his damaged
helicopter—realizing he was running
across the rocky ground and getting
shot at for the first time, moments later
carrying a soldier with a blown-off leg
across a river to a second bird.
It was “pure amazement,” he says.
It was something he thought could
never happen. And he’s talking about
himself.
“All you can do is try,” he says,
“and move as fast as possible.” 
The DUSTOFFer
Maryland Medevac Wants TAWS
The March 2009 issue of Rotor and Wing noted additional technology
required for civilian aeromedical evacuation systems.
Maryland’s new air ambulances will have terrain awareness and warning systems (TAWS), according to Maryland
State Police Spokesperson Greg Shipley, who also indicated that, “I have it on good authority that the terrain awareness
system is a required component. We have that system on three of our current helicopters. We did not have it on Trooper
2, the helicopter that crashed on 27 September 2008.”
Four people died when the Maryland Police Eurocopter AS365N1 Dauphin “collided with trees and terrain in Walker
Mill Regional Park, District Heights, Maryland,” said the NTSB’s Specialist Factual Report. “The commercial pilot,
one flight paramedic, one field provider, and one of two automobile accidents patients being transported were killed. The
other patient being transported survived the helicopter accident and was hospitalized with serious injuries.” Had Trooper
2 been equipped with a TAWS system, the fatal collision—the worst medevac accident in Maryland’s history—might not
have occurred.
Under the proposed new helicopter procurement, which was announced by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on
21 January 2009, the MSP would buy up to 12 new multi-mission helicopters. The state police currently fly 11 Dauphins.
The oldest five were purchased in 1989.
Silence on
Sweltering Medics
The helicopter corporation
operating air ambulances in the
New South Wales Ambulance
Service in Australia has refused
to comment on reports that
flight medics in their aircraft
are suffering from heat stroke.
According to The Daily Telegraph
newspaper (Australia), “Air
ambulance helicopter crews are
collapsing with heat exhaustion
on rescue flights because
temperatures in the non-airconditioned cabins sometimes
hit 50 degrees Centigrade (122
Fahrenheit). The extreme heat
has caused crew members
to vomit in mid-air, requiring
injections and medication.”
From the March 31, 2009, issue
of Army Aviation:
Flight Medic SSG Matthew
Kinney was honored for his gallantry under enemy fire in a 19
February welcome-home ceremony for the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade in Hangar 3 at Fort
Campbell, Kentucky. Kinney, with
Company C, 6th Battalion, 101st
Aviation Regiment, received the
Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery and actions in combat when he recovered
and treated several wounded coalition Soldiers while under enemy
fire during a medical evacuation
mission last year in Afghanistan.
Kinney is the second Soldier from
the 101st CAB to receive the Silver Star for actions during Operation Enduring Freedom IX.
DUSTOFF Soldiers Earn Combat
Decorations
From a 2008 Army Aviation:
CW3 James Frederick, an HH60 aeromedical evacuation pilot,
received the Distinguished Flying
Cross on 6 February during an
awards ceremony at Camp Taji, Iraq.
Frederick, who serves with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 4th Aviation
Regiment, earned the award for
meticulously piloting his Black
Hawk air ambulance helicopter in
a hover over a burning building to
rescue four trapped Iraqi National
Police officers from the rooftop at
the Joint Security Station Oubaidy
in Sadr City, in eastern Baghdad last
July 18. Frederick had to maneuver
and maintain a stabilized hover
approximately seven feet over the
rescue location, while each officer
was lifted one-by-one by hoist into
the aircraft. These types of operations are extremely dangerous and
vulnerable to enemy attack, due to
the time the aircraft is stationary.
As a part of an 11 December welcome home ceremony for Soldiers
of C Company (Air Ambulance), 1st Bn, 214th Aviation Regiment,
at the Landstuhl Heliport, Germany, an awards ceremony was held
to present combat awards. MAJ Andrew Risio, unit commander,
presented SGT Ian Barlet and SGT Billy Raines with the Air
Medal, the Combat Action Badge, and the Iraq Campaign Medical. C Company was deployed to Iraq in July 2007 and returned
in December 2008.
Spring/Summer 2009
PAGE 19
Top of the Schoolhouse
by 1SG Eric Hartman
I
t is truly an honor to serve as the
First Sergeant for the United States
Army School of Aviation Medicine.
This assignment is a high-point of my
career. I would like to thank the Dean
and AMEDD C&S senior leadership
for giving me this opportunity to excel.
I am looking forward to working in
this capacity for the DUSTOFF community.
I would like to congratulate all of
the newly promotable Staff Sergeants
who came out on the 2009 Sergeant
First Class Promotion list. Within the
schoolhouse there were four NCOs
who made the cut: SSG O’Donnell,
SSG Jordan, SSG Hildebrandt, and
SSG Ocon. Congratulations!
The instructors at USASAM have
continued to set the standard on Ft.
Rucker, with SSG Jordan winning the
United States Army Aviation Center
of Excellence Instructor of the Year
FY 08, and SSG Rath receiving the
Instructor of the Quarter for the 1st
Quarter FY 09.
There is some good news for the
Flight Medic Standardization program
within the Aviation community. The
USAACE G-3 has confirmed that
they have had a total of seven 68WF
complete the Aircraft Crewmember
Standardization Instructor Course,
UH-60, since 2006. These individuals
received orders upon graduation qualifying them for the N1 ASI, but the ASI
was not coded in their personal military
records. The individuals who have
completed the course need to take their
orders to their supporting personnel
center and have their records updated
appropriately. The following names are
those who have completed the training
and need to update their records: MSG
Shultz, SFC Givings, SSG Quinn, SSG
Stephans, SSG Dueberry, SSG Carpenter, and SGT Fezer.
The Joint En Route
Care Course is going
strong and growing every day, but one thing
would make the course
even better. More NCOs
should be attending
the course.
USASAM’s Warrior Track has introduced a new way to take the training
to the Warfighter and save some time
and money. The Reduced Oxygen
Breathing Device (ROBD) is a mobile
hypoxia trainer that allows aircrew
members to experience the symptoms
of hypoxia without the dangers associated with hypobaric (altitude) chambers. It takes Nitrogen, Compressed
Air, and Oxygen, and through mixing
units within the device, decreases
the oxygen concentration of breathed
air from 21% to 7%. This simulates
Black Bears Return to Maine
A Maine Army National Guard aeromedical evacuation company from
Bangor returned in December 2008 after its nine-month deployment to
Iraq and flying more than 3,000 hours and evacuating 670 patients. Based
at Logistical Support Area Adder at Talil Air Base near An Nasariyah in
southern Iraq, the “Black Bears” Soldiers of C Company, 1st Battalion,
126th Aviation Regiment, pride themselves in being an air ambulance
unit, where every mission is critical to the rescue of the sick, injured, and
wounded. The Black Bears had one memorable mission where ground
forces came under hostile fire, incurring two severely wounded and one
dead Soldier. The air crew flew in limited-visibility weather to evacuate
the wounded Soldiers successfully, helping to save their lives. The crew
was later awarded the Air Medal for their actions that day.
PAGE 20
the low pressure effects at 25,000 ft.
The ROBD can be operated by one
individual, and around 50 people can
participate in the training during one
duty day. The altitude chamber is limited to 16 students at a time (only 32
per duty day), and it takes nine people
to operate it.
The ROBD also incorporates flight
simulation into its training profile. The
aircrew members are forced to do flight
tasks while becoming hypoxic, resulting in more realistic training than the
altitude chamber. Each ROBD costs
approximately $23,000, as compared
to the $50,000 (depreciated value, not
counting maintenance costs) hypobaric
chamber. Units nearing deployment
can request ROBD training if their
mission will cause them to fly at high
altitudes in theater. This training is
easily accomplished and reduces the
time and coordination it would take
to send an entire AVN BDE TDY for
chamber training. The students leave
the training able to recognize and treat
the symptoms of hypoxia. The ROBD
is an invaluable tool used to show the
dangers of hypoxia at altitude.
The Joint En Route Care Course is
going strong and growing every day,
but there is one thing that would make
the course even better. More NCOs
should be attending the course. This is
a great opportunity for Flight Medics
to work alongside Nurses to learn the
team concept of working together on a
critical patient in the back of a MEDEVAC aircraft. I want to encourage Commanders to send their Flight Medics to
the course before their next trip down
range. This is a great opportunity to
better prepare your Flight Medics for
the missions they will undertake.
USASAM has some of the best
instructors I have ever seen, but we
would not be able to do what we do if it
weren’t for those who served before us
within the DUSTOFF arena. Thanks to
all of those individuals who made this
mission a reality. DUSTOFF!
—DUSTOFFer—
The DUSTOFFer
From the Consultant
by COL Bob Mitchell
Greetings from the United States
Army Aviation Center of Excellence or
USAACE, as it is commonly referred
to now. Fort Rucker and USAACE
are busier than ever these days, and
there are plenty of new initiatives as
well tackling old issues with current
Medevac operations across the entire
spectrum.
Despite Medevac units having one
of the highest OPTEMPOs of any unit
in the Army, our Soldier Medics continue to do extraordinary feats of heroism in OEF and OIF. We are inching
closer to having our first 67J officers
take command of the General Support
Aviation Battalions within the Combat
Aviation Brigades and adding to the
long list of historic accomplishments
of previous MSC officers who established the foundation that preserves
our legacy. Lieutenant Colonels Rob
Howe (5-158th GSAB in Germany),
Eric Rude (3-2 GSAB, formerly 2-52
in Korea), and Pete Eberhardt (2-4
GSAB at Ft Hood, which relocates to
Ft Bliss, Texas, as 2-501 GSAB under
1AD flag in Oct 09). Congratulations to
these outstanding 67Js, who will pave
the way for future commands in the
aviation branch formation.
As you recall, I formed a team back
in October to specifically examine a
path ahead for the 67J, with emphasis
on critically analyzing the pros and
cons of integrating in the Aviation
Branch. The team concluded that retaining AMEDD influence and creating
more strategic aviation positions at the
O5 and O6 levels would enhance the
relevancy of the 67J for the future. The
team identified several key aviation
positions for enhanced career development at the O5 and O6 levels, which
ultimately will provide strategic vision
There has been tremendous progress on the
Army’s intent to increase
the current Medevac
Company structure from
12 to 15 aircraft. . . .
for the future of Medevac. Update: that
brief was delivered to the Commander,
AMEDDC&S and was approved to go
forward to the Corps Chief for decision. Ultimately, the Corps Chief (MG
Rubenstein) will have to concur with
the recommendations, followed by a
re-write of DA PAM 600-4.
There has been tremendous progress on the Army’s intent to increase
the current Medevac Company structure from 12 to 15 aircraft to include
increasing the internal organizational
structure from 85 to 109 personnel.
All the changes made by MEPD were
concurred with by the Army G-3 and
Vice Chief of Staff (VCSA). Bottom
line: big Army is moving out with this
structure change because it is the right
thing to do. Now the hard part is before
us in determining how we are going to
pay for this bill. More to follow, but this
should be good news for our Medevac
units that are supporting Operation
Enduring Freedom currently.
Make sure to place on your calendars the upcoming Army Medical
Evacuation Conference (AMEC) that
will be held at the Edgewater Resort
in Panama City, Florida, 22–26 February 2010. Additionally, the AMEC
will follow the DUSTOFF Association Reunion at the same resort 19–21
February 2010. MEPD will establish a
website shortly for planning and registration purposes. This will be a great
event, and I hope you will be able to
participate.
Finally, on behalf of LTG Schoomaker (Army Surgeon General), I want
to say how proud the Army Medical
Department is of all your accomplishments. There are amazing feats of heroism being performed every day with
our deployed forces. Rest assured, you
have the respect and admiration of an
entire nation. Keep up the great work.
DUSTOFF!
—DUSTOFFer—
A DUSTOFF Encounter
SFC Brian “Papa” Brockett shared how his heart and soul as a DUSTOFF Medic were touched through a response to
the first question flight medics always ask a casualty, “Hey, hey, are you okay?” This time the wounded warrior, without
skipping a beat, wiped the blood from the wound in his face and looked me dead in the eye and said, “I’m all right; I
knew you’d come.”
Asking his fellow Marines, “What happened?” The answer—he was number one through the door and he got shot.
Like most DUSTOFFers I know, when we are in the heat of the moment, we don’t think about the magnitude of what we
see or have experienced. But as I was preparing my run sheets, it hit me. This young 19- to 20-year-old Marine is ready
and more than willing to be the first one into the room where undoubtedly an enemy waits with a weapon to kill, disfigure,
or cripple him for the rest of his life. He doesn’t fear death because he knows that a DUSTOFF crew would be prepared
to answer the call to save not only him, but any member of his brotherhood of warriors. So the bond between war fighter
and medical evacuator will forever be honored. For I, as a DUSTOFF Soldier, vow never to quit or give up until I have
your wounded. The war fighter believes he can face some of the most terrifying and horrible conditions created among
men without fear because he knows I will come. —DUSTOFFer—
Spring/Summer 2009
PAGE 21
2009 DUSTOFF Association
Hall of Fame Nominee
C
COL David D. Dryden
olonel David D. Dryden graduated as a Distinguished Military Graduate from the University of South Dakota. After
attending flight training, his first flying assignment was in Germany. He then went to Fort Bragg and became one of the
first Medical Service Corps (MSC) pilots to qualify as a Helicopter Instrument Flight Instructor.
In1964, he deployed to Vietnam with the 82d Medical Detachment and was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, one
for rescuing a downed helicopter gunship crew under heavy enemy fire, and the second for rescuing an American Air Force
pilot who bailed out at night. With no radio contact, he used his searchlight and flew repeated passes through intense enemy fire
before finally locating and rescuing the pilot.
As standardization pilot for the 82d, he averted near tragedy after his helicopter was rammed from the rear by a twin-engine
airplane while giving a check ride to another pilot. Despite the loss of his tail rotor and some of the tail boom, he managed to
level the helicopter before impacting the ground. His quick actions and exemplary flying skill allowed everyone to walk away
with only minor injuries.
Dave participated in a shortened version of the Officers’ Career Course because he was being considered as the prime candidate
to organize and command a new helicopter ambulance unit planned for Japan. Despite being only a mid-grade captain, his demonstrated leadership and extensive combat experience caused senior operational planners to select him for that demanding task.
In Japan, he faced almost insurmountable challenges. Rather than deploying an existing organization, he had to build a unit
on foreign soil using pilots and crews from several stateside locations. His proven leadership skills and unhesitating concern
for the welfare of his men were severely tested, but he quickly established unit cohesion.
The unit’s mission was to rapidly transport combat casualties arriving at two airbases to military hospitals for definitive
care. As if activating a unit from scratch was not enough, he had to make-do with three old UH-1Bs that had been left behind in
Hawaii. Used for door-gunner training, they were all badly pock-marked and in a deplorable state of maintenance.
Captain Dryden began attacking these problems through the U.S. Army Medical Command, Japan (MEDCOMJ) that was
just being activated under U.S. Army, Japan (USARJ). MEDCOMJ had no aviators on its staff, so control of the medical helicopters became an urgent issue. USARJ wanted its Airfield Commander to control them, but Captain Dryden knew the roles
and missions of medical assets and was aware of similar attempts to gain control of medical helicopters in Vietnam. Solidly
holding his ground, he managed to get the USARJ position changed.
Challenged by the fact that there were six Army, Navy, and Air Force hospitals scattered in a wide arc around the greater
Tokyo area, Captain Dryden convinced the senior leadership that he must have an integrated communication system to operate
during the adverse weather conditions that existed much of the time. His efforts resulted in the establishment of a civilian radio
network that permitted instantaneous communications with his aircraft, the casualty staging facilities at the airbases, and the
outlying hospitals.
With more American troops arriving in Vietnam, it quickly became evident that the patient transfer demand would overwhelm
his three UH-1Bs, so Captain Dryden solved that problem during a fortuitous visit by General Johnny K. Waters, Commander
of the U.S. Army Pacific Command. Captain Dryden knew General Waters had visited Japan earlier and met with seriously
wounded patients who had endured long and painful bus rides from the airheads to the hospitals. That particular visit resulted
in General Waters appealing to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to get an air ambulance unit in Japan. Armed with that background,
Captain Dryden briefed General Waters that the quality of care for the wounded was being compromised because of the lack
of aircraft and the poor condition of the ones he had. His deep-seated concern was acknowledged by General Waters, and five
new UH-1Ds arrived shortly thereafter.
While red crosses were being painted on the newly arrived helicopters, the USARJ Chief of Staff sent a message to Captain
Dryden telling him the new aircraft were USARJ assets and would be used for medical and non-medical purposes, so he should
“Paint the damned red crosses off the aircraft before nightfall.”
Faced with having his aircraft stolen, Captain Dryden thoroughly and intensely briefed COL (P) Kenneth Orr, the newly arrived Commander on MEDCOMJ, on the consequences of such action. COL Orr then squared off with the USARJ Commander,
who relented. Captain Dryden retained control of the red crosses. Without his courage to take a firm stand, like MAJ Charles
Kelly had done before him, medical aviation could have been irrevocably damaged.
Captain Dryden’s unit set records in Japan that will never be equaled. Maintaining an operational ready rate of 98 percent
after the UH-1Ds arrived, a total of 63,000 patients were transported during his two-year command. Even more impressive, 7,404
patients were flown during February 1968 from the infamous Tet Offensive. As a result of his extraordinary accomplishments,
the reputations of the MSC and DUSTOFF itself were indelibly enhanced.
Promoted to major, he left Japan to command the 571st Medical Detachment in Vietnam. In a seamless transition of command,
Major Dryden guided that veteran unit through a period of bloody fighting in the A Shau Valley. Always leading by example, he
flew, coordinated, and oversaw countless hoist missions from the triple-canopied jungles of northern I Corps. His unit responded
(COL David D. Dryden, continued on page 26.)
PAGE 22
The DUSTOFFer
2009 DUSTOFF Association
Hall of Fame Nominee
J
Jimmy L. Johnson
immy L. Johnson’s service as a medic with the 54th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance) in Chu Lai, RVN,
and his following service as a commissioned officer uniquely qualify him for selection to the DUSTOFF Hall of Fame.
He is nominated for his outstanding service to the Army, the military community, and the country.
Jimmy Johnson volunteered for the 54th at Fort Benning, Georgia, shortly before the unit’s deployment to Vietnam. He had
recently served in Vietnam as an ambulance driver and aidman, often under enemy fire, so he was well aware of the dangers
he would be facing on his return. Soon after the unit deployed to and became operational in Chu Lai, the unit became heavily
involved in the evacuation of combat casualties. Jimmy quickly earned the title and status of “Super Medic.” His abilities, dedication, leadership and willingness to risk his life to save the lives of others on many, many occasions earned him the respect,
confidence, and admiration of everyone in the unit. His focus on the lifesaving mission of DUSTOFF, even when faced with
heavy enemy fire and other dangers, was an inspiration to everyone. His earlier experience in Vietnam enabled him to show the
less-experienced aidmen what it took to be an effective combat medic.
While it is impossible to cover every mission in which he displayed his unique and exceptional skills and bravery, several
instances are worthy of mention. On the night of 2 October 1967, when numerous members of an infantry unit were seriously
wounded by coordinated attacks from a large North Vietnamese Army (NVA) unit, Jimmy volunteered for the rescue mission
in spite of the threats of heavy enemy fire, treacherous mountain terrain, and poor weather conditions. On repeated flights into
the battle area, he voluntarily left the helicopter and exposed himself to hails of bullets to organize patients for movement and
then carry them to the aircraft, where he immediately provided them lifesaving first aid.
On another mission, after picking up several wounded, his aircraft took fire from the NVA version of the 50-caliber machine
gun. Johnson quickly grabbed his weapon and returned fire until the enemy fire was silent. During the firefight, however, one
of the enemy rounds struck and penetrated the armored seat of the pilot, resulting in significant wounds. Jimmy immediately
switched to his medic duties, reclined the seat, and began giving the pilot the medical care he badly needed. His actions throughout this incident saved the pilot and perhaps even the helicopter and the entire crew.
Another typical mission involved four seriously wounded American Soldiers located in a rice paddy at the base of a mountain
and surrounded on three sides by trees. Ground forces were engaged with the enemy and receiving heavy fire. Johnson returned
fire throughout the approach and upon landing quickly went to work moving the patients to the helicopter, making several trips,
and completely exposing himself to the enemy fire until all patients were loaded. Friendly forces could provide very little assistance in the LZ. The enemy fire heavily damaged the helicopter and seriously wounded the crew chief. Johnson crossed to the
other side of the helicopter, once again exposing himself to more enemy fire, and applied first aid to his fellow crewman. During
the takeoff and return flight, he administered lifesaving treatment to all the wounded. Throughout the mission, he showed great
stamina, professionalism, and true heroism.
An additional instance of Jimmy’s dedication was his volunteering for several evacuation flights in extremely hazardous
weather. A tropical storm had grounded all other aircraft. The helicopter was forced to fly at less than 100 feet altitude in rain
and fog, making it extremely vulnerable. Enemy fire was intense. When the aircraft was seriously damaged by the enemy’s
automatic weapons fire during the first pickup, Jimmy volunteered to return to the same area on a replacement aircraft, knowing
he would encounter the same dangers. Once again he completed the lifesaving mission.
These missions and examples of Jimmy Johnson’s actions were not unique instances of his dedication and bravery. During
his service with the 54th, he probably directly participated in over 800 missions carrying more than 2,000 patients. He saved
the lives of hundreds of wounded, who would not have survived without his bravery. His many awards include Air Medals with
“V” Devices and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Jimmy Johnson’s performance as a DUSTOFF medic was exemplary, and he
has earned the honor of selection to the DUSTOFF Hall of Fame.
When Johnson’s enlistment was completed, the detachment commander tried to convince him to reenlist, because he recognized his great value to the Army. Johnson believed he had even better ways to serve. His decision was based on his dedication
of service to his fellow Soldiers, which he had learned and developed as a DUSTOFF medic in the 54th. He left the Army and
worked his way through school, earning an Associate Degree and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. He then returned
to the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer in the Army Nurse Corps.
Johnson’s accomplishments, in a series of increasingly responsible positions in his new career, focusing primarily on community health programs, are extremely impressive and reflect an outstanding dedication to serving the military. He continued to
enhance his knowledge and abilities, obtaining a Masters Degree and then a Ph.D. in his nursing specialty. Before his retirement,
he served in a variety of assignments in locations such as Germany, Alaska, and Honduras, and established several comprehensive installation community health programs. He earned many awards from the Army and the Air Force, as well as the Joint
Service Commendation Medal. These awards recognized his professionalism and effectiveness in improving medical support
to the military. He also served in the Gulf War and was instrumental in developing the role of the community health nurse in the
(Jimmy L. Johnson, continued on page 26.)
Spring/Summer 2009
PAGE 23
2009 DUSTOFF Association
Hall of Fame Nominee
C
COL Pauline Lockard
OL Pauline Lockard is nominated for induction into the DUSTOFF Hall of Fame for her significant leadership, superb
ability in aeromedical operations in peace and conflict, and matchless representation of professionalism in acting as the
lead proponent for the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) future force structure. COL Lockard served as one of the
very first female military officers to command field medical units at critical times during a number of dangerous and complex
missions in Southwest Asia, Somalia, and Bosnia and went on to major leadership positions in the Army during its development
as a more modern, deployable force.
COL Lockard was a Distinguished Military Graduate from Rutgers University in 1980 and received a Regular Army commission in the Medical Service Corps. She served in the 44th Medical Brigade’s 36th Medical Company (Clearing) until she
attended the Rotary Wing Aviator Course, graduating in 1982. Her first operational flight position was a critical educational role
and an initial aviation leadership position as an Aeromedical Evacuation Officer with the “Flatiron” at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
Following her graduation from the AMEDD Officers’ Advanced Course, she served as the Flight Operations Officer and Section Leader for the 54th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance) in Fort Lewis, Washington, and then was selected for
command of the 423rd Medical Company (Clearing).
COL Lockard was deployed to Europe in 1989, where she served as an Inspector General for approximately two years, but
was summoned as the Army faced another major conflict. With the onset of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, she was
reassigned to the 421st Evacuation Battalion, where she soon took command of the 159th Medical Company (Air Ambulance).
She was the first female officer to command a helicopter air ambulance company in deployments within Germany, Turkey (Operation Provide Comfort), the civil war-torn country of Somalia (Operation Restore Hope), and Saudi Arabia (Operation Desert
Storm) during the Gulf War. During preparations for Desert Storm, as the 421st was ramping up to brigade-sized operations
with over 1,500 troops, 90 German and American helicopters, and over 110 ground ambulances, she established the Nuremberg
evacuation center. She coordinated with German, Dutch, and British military organizations to set up an international team to
operate air and ground ambulances, air traffic control, and hospitalization for returning wounded. Her unit was awarded the
Meritorious Unit Commendation for its participation in support of deployed U.S. and Allied Forces.
Upon her return from Somalia, COL Lockard completed the Army Command and General Staff College. She was then assigned
as the Secretary of the General Staff, United States Army Medical Command; the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel
(G-1) as the AMEDD Personnel Systems Officer; and the Plans Officer for the 44th Medical Brigade. In 1998, she assumed
command of the 56th Medical Evacuation Battalion, the Army’s only airborne medical evacuation battalion. Her responsibility
included over 430 personnel, 30 aircraft, more than 100 vehicles, nearly $200 million in property, and an annual operational
budget of $250,000. She was one of the first female airborne medical battalion commanders. She also commanded subordinate
units spread over several states supporting worldwide operations, to include continuing support to Southwest Asia, Bright Star,
and a multitude of joint operations training. Stateside, the 56th Evacuation Battalion was most noted for its outstanding support
during Hurricane Floyd. She led a Medical Task Force to Bosnia-Herzegovina from May 2000 to March 2001, with a superbly
successful record, supporting more than 5,000 Soldiers, flying more than 750 hours of aeromedical mission support and training
without a loss of life, and exceeding readiness goals at all times. She was cited as “. . . easily one of the most competent and
balanced medical commanders in our Army . . . a model of fitness and durability.”
COL Lockard returned from her multiple deployments to the Office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General, where she was personally selected to serve as the Director, Special Staff. She coordinated and integrated an immense range of sectional activities,
including the Internal Review and Compliance Office, Safety Management, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Protocol,
Inspector General, Staff Judge Advocate, and the office of the Chaplain. While in this position of tremendous responsibility,
she also supervised the AMEDD Congressional Liaison Office, Public Affairs, Marketing, and all the supporting activities. In
this critical role, she was noted for “. . . improving the effectiveness and efficiencies of these activities and programs throughout
their range in direct support of senior leadership in its critical decision-making role.” Further, senior leadership described her
as epitomizing “. . . strategic vision and innovative management style (and) relentless pursuit of excellence.”
Recognizing her tremendous skill and drive, COL Lockard was then assigned to serve as the primary advisor to the Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School on all aspects of medical evacuation and as the AMEDD
liaison to the U.S. Army Aviation Center on all evacuation issues, including doctrine, training, leadership, organization, and
material development. While serving as the Director of the Medical Evacuation Proponency Directorate, she utilized her superb
experience and background as an aeromedical evacuation helicopter pilot and battalion commander in combat to advise and
consult on both tactical and strategic issues concerned with medical evacuation. As a result of her superior actions and focus,
the AMEDD was able to maintain the integrity of the Air Ambulance Company, because she demonstrated flaws in arguments
for cost savings and operational efficiencies, which were being used to justify the unit’s absorption into a larger aviation branch
organization. The leadership of the AMEDD cited her for “. . . superb performance as the Director, Medical Evacuation Pro-
(COL Pauline Lockard, continued on page 26.)
PAGE 24
The DUSTOFFer
2009 DUSTOFF Association
Hall of Fame Nominee
L
LTC James C. Wingate
TC James C. Wingate entered military service as a warrant officer candidate in 1968. He graduated from flight school
and attended the Essential Medical Training for AMEDD Aviators. He received his commission while assigned to
the 54th Medical Detachment (HA). He was deployed to Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 as a 2LT Air Defense Artillery
and later transferred to the Medical Service Corps. As a DUSTOFF pilot, he finished his Vietnam tour with 1100 combat flight
hours and 805 lifesaving MEDEVAC missions, earning 34 Air Medals, three of which earned a Valor Device. Exemplifying
the DUSTOFF heritage, 1LT Wingate distinguished himself with extreme heroism, while commanding a helicopter ambulance
during rescue operations west of Chu Li and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on July 12, 1970.
The citation read, “. . . Although receiving intense enemy fire, 1LT Wingate landed his helicopter and remained on station
until four casualties were safely aboard. After departing from the pickup site, 1LT Wingate was informed that additional wounded
needed immediate evacuation. Defiantly, 1LT Wingate guided his aircraft into the landing zone amidst intense enemy fire and
the hostile fusillade and successfully extracted the additional wounded ground troops. . . .”
LTC Wingate continually served in positions of increasing responsibilities throughout his 25 years in the Army, compiling
72 months of command time at the detachment, company and battalion levels. Key staff positions included Adjutant General at
William Beaumont Army Medical Center; Chief, Plans, Operations, Training and Security – Augsburg MEDDAC; Executive
Officer, 326 Medical Battalion, 101st Air Assault Division; Medical Service Corps representative for Combined Arms Center
Combat and Doctrine Developments Activity and Aviation Staff Officer, Combat Developments at AMEDDC&S.
LTC Wingate served as Commander of the 85th Medical Battalion at Fort Meade and Saudi Arabia for Operations Desert
Shield and Desert Storm from 1989 to 1991. His battalion provided area medical support during Operation Desert Storm to
soldiers of the 18th Airborne Corps. One of his responsibilities while in Command was to redesign and train battalion and hospital personnel into rapid action Task Forces that could respond to possible biological and chemical attacks in preparation for
Operation Desert Storm, as well as support the U.S. movement to contact. The resulting task forces were able to maintain the
pace of the advance in addition to providing medical care en route.
As Project Officer and Executive Officer to the Director, Combat Developments at the Combined Arms Combat Development
Activity (CACDA) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Wingate managed the redesign efforts of 12 functional area project officers
and was a member of the team responsible for redesigning the Army to the Army of Excellence. Key to the effort was ensuring
each functional area met the personnel strength directed by the TRADOC commander.
LTC Wingate’s final assignment in the Army came with the task to modernize Army Aeromedical evacuation. While assigned
to the AMEDDC&S he initiated and sustained development of the advanced proof-of-principle Army medical evacuation helicopter, the UH60Q. He brought a team of experts together from the military and civilian communities to identify requirements
and equipment for the aircraft, wrote the requirement’s document, and staffed the document through the Army Deputy Chief of
Staff for Operations and Requirements. Additionally, he convinced suppliers to consign equipment to the effort for little or no
cost to the Army. LTC Wingate coordinated the efforts of seven military agencies and a number of civilian corporations to build
the aircraft. He served as the material developer for the Army Medical Department, while working in conjunction with the Utility
Helicopter Program Management Office. Additionally, he worked with OTSG to have a medical service corps aviator assigned
permanently to the Utility Helicopter PM Office to serve as the full-time AMEDD MEDEVAC representative.
In 1992, a number of solutions were developed to provide improved en route trauma care, but all were deemed too expensive
by Army leadership. LTC Jim Wingate was committed to finding an affordable solution. He was convinced that, if he could
get the program started, the U.S. Army leadership would eventually provide the required support. He would not take no for an
answer. The program he initiated was truly unique for a military program at this time in the Army.
LTC Wingate worked with the National Guard to obtain U.S. Congressional support from Congresswoman Marilyn Lloyd
of Tennessee. She provided the funding through a Congressional plus up, and the UH-60 aircraft to be modified from her state
National Guard Medical Evacuation Unit. He then directed his attention to forming a partnership with industry to help execute
the program. His plan was to have industry participate in the program by providing the equipment and installation support at a
nominal cost for the proof of concept aircraft.
The program was placed on a fast track, and the total time to do the integration took less than six months. These were the
first U.S. Army medical evacuation aircraft to have a medical interior developed specifically for en route patient care, with
modernized communications and navigation equipment integrated via a 1553 data bus. The first aircraft were modified UH-60A
aircraft and designated the UH-60Q. Four UH60Q’s were produced.
Wingate was unable to finish the effort while on active duty. After retiring from the Army, he continued leading the modernization effort as a consultant. Through his efforts, Air Methods, Sikorsky Aircraft, Litton Life Support, Breeze Eastern, Canadian
Marconi, FLIR, Inc., and a multitude of other equipment suppliers formed the MEDEVAC Team and continued to market the
need until the Army leadership accepted the Medical Department’s MEDEVAC solution.
(LTC James C. Wingate, continued on page 26.)
Spring/Summer 2009
PAGE 25
(COL David D. Dryden, continued from page 22.)
to his firm guiding hand and performed flawlessly.
During that second tour in Vietnam, Major Dryden became one of few officers to earn the Soldier’s Medal for Valor after a civilian
airliner crashed, burst into flames, and careened into a refueling area. Despite the danger, he landed nearby and ran into the burning
wreckage three times to extract injured passengers.
Major Dryden then became one of the early pilots to attend the Health Care Administration course. While there, he was challenged
by classmates on his ability to perform in a hospital environment, because he had spent all his time in flying units. He proved that
aviators can successfully transition into alternate career fields by becoming the Deputy Commander of Administration at Irwin Army
Community Hospital and later at one of the Army’s most prestigious facilities, William Beaumont Army Medical Center.
Unfortunately, a serious medical condition ended his flight status. However, his early command leadership and continued success
as a strong advocate for DUSTOFF and the medical evacuation mission during the remainder of his MSC career provided an identifiable impact on DUSTOFF Aviation and were an inspiration to others.
At a reunion of the 571st some 40 years later, several unit members attested to the lifelong influence that Major Dryden’s character,
leadership, and integrity had on their own post-military careers. They unanimously testified to using the “What would Major Dryden
have done?” method of resolving conflicts, choosing ethical paths, and always leading by example.
Colonel Dryden retired on 31 July 1985, following a career marked by phenomenal bravery, consummate aviation skills, and an
ability to deal with difficult situations in previously unknown environs—the epitome of a DUSTOFF professional.
(Jimmy L. Johnson, continued from page 23.)
combat zone. These accomplishments are an indication of his quality as an individual, his dedication, and his continued outstanding
service to the military. His experiences as a DUSTOFF medic started him on a long and successful career that has contributed significantly to the health of the Army community.
To even further show the wide scope of Jimmy’s many talents, he is an accomplished musician who used his musical skills to
work his way through college. He has also entertained us by soloing with the band during the past two DUSTOFF reunion banquets.
Jimmy Johnson is a talented, unique, and brave member of DUSTOFF, who has earned and deserves selection as an honored member
of the DUSTOFF Hall of Fame.
(COL Pauline Lockard, continued from page 24.)
ponency . . .” during this critical building period.
In her final assignment, COL Lockard was selected for assignment as the Chief, Force Management, Office of the Surgeon General.
She served as one of the Army’s senior medical leaders in performing liaison with AMEDD leadership for rationalizing and integrating modernization and change with the department, including the critical combat and peacetime roles of aeromedical evacuation.
Coordinating closely with the Director of Health Care Operations and many flag-rank officers, she communicated and represented
goals and objectives of the AMEDD with senior leadership, up to flag and executive department levels, on a routine basis. She served
as The Surgeon General’s designated representative on the highest level transformation decision groups. In this final military role,
COL Lockard was recognized for exceptional performance in representing and achieving the AMEDD’s priorities and goals, including maintenance of force levels and capabilities and ensuring that vital services were provided to Soldiers, their Allied Forces, and
the Families of the military.
COL Lockard’s awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, nine Meritorious Service Medals, two Army Commendation
Medals, the Army Achievement Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal, and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. She also earned
the Senior Army Aviator Badge, the Airborne Badge, the Expert Field Medical Badge, and the Order of Military Medical Merit.
COL Pauline Lockard has always epitomized the ultimate in drive, focused intelligence, and exceptional leadership, along with her
superb skills in AMEDD aviation. Her accomplishments as being the “. . . first female officer/aviator . . .” to deploy, lead in combat,
and command critical AMEDD aviation units in times of difficulty and combat are far exceeded by her performance as an exceptional
U.S. Army officer and a role model for all DUSTOFFers, present and future.
(LTC James C. Wingate, continued from page 25.)
Wingate’s leadership unified these major corporations with the purpose of obtaining funds to modernize the Army Medical Department’s helicopter fleet. His efforts and commitment directed the initial congressional marketing effort for the suppliers that resulted in
the first plus-ups of $29 million for the UH60Q/HH60 medical aircraft. As it became apparent the UH-60Q was underpowered for the
missions required, he coordinated efforts to have the upgrades incorporated into a production UH-60L. By working through Congress,
his efforts were responsible for the development and transition to the HH-60L MEDEVAC helicopters. He continues to work with Air
Methods Corporation in developing upgrades for Army medical evacuation helicopters to include the HH60M.
Each year Wingate worked with the Team members to rally support for MEDEVAC through individual company lobbyists. The efforts
of the team provided 31 HH60L medical aircraft through congressional plus-ups for the Army Medical Department’s National Guard
units. He also worked with the USAR staff to obtain another 26 HH60L/M aircraft by coordinating the supplier congressional effort and
working with the congressional professional committee staff and defense legislative aides for the Army Reserve.
Wingate was also instrumental in bringing users from all Army components to develop a patient litter system for legacy UH60
aircraft assigned the MEDEVAC mission. The replacement for the carousel improves the capability by decreasing weight and improving space utilization in the cabin.
Through LTC Wingate’s efforts, these aircraft are now being fielded and are involved daily in saving U.S. and Coalition Soldier and civilian
lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, ensuring that his legacy will continue well beyond his initial contributions to this generation.
PAGE 26
The DUSTOFFer
2009 DUSTOFF Association
Hall of Fame Ballot
COL David D. Dryden
COL Pauline Lockard
Jimmy L. Johnson
LTC James C. Wingate
This ballot is for the 2009 election for DUSTOFF Hall of Fame induction. Those elected will be inducted into the
DUSTOFF Hall of Fame at the 2010 Annual DUSTOFF Reunion in Orlando, Florida, 19–21 February 2010.
Nominees must capture two-thirds of the votes cast to be elected. Please participate in this endeavor. It’s your hall of fame
and our legacy. Vote yes or no for the nominees below.
COL David D. Dryden q Yes
q No
Jimmy L. Johnson
q Yes
q No
COL Pauline Lockard
q Yes
q No
LTC James C. Wingate
q Yes
q No
You may vote online (instructions below), or mail this ballot and any donation you wish to make to:
DUSTOFF Association
P. O. Box 8091
San Antonio, TX 78208
Your ballot must be received at the post office box or online on or before October 31, 2009, to be counted.
Instructions for Voting Online
•
•
•
•
•
•
Log on to http://dustoff.org.
Click HALL OF FAME
Click 2009 NOMINEES to read narratives of the nominees
When ready to vote, click VOTING BOOTH
To log in, use the following:
Username: dustoff
Password:
hof2009
Fill in all blanks, including your member number. The member number is above your name on the mailing
label of this DUSTOFFer or the letter of notification you received in the mail.
Spring/Summer 2009
PAGE 27
DUSTOFF Association
P. O. Box 8091
San Antonio, TX 78208-0091
Presort STD
U.S. Postage Paid
Permit No. 3017
San Antonio, TX
Address service requested
DUSTOFF Association
Membership Application/Change of Address
q
I want to join the Association as a Life Member
Officers and Civilians
E-9 and below
q
Check here if change of address, or e-mail change to [email protected]
$100.00 One-time fee
$ 50.00 One-time fee
Rank ____ Last name ___________________ First name ___________________ M.I. _____
Mailing address ________________________________________________________________
E-mail _________________________ Spouse’s name _______________________________
Home phone __________________________ Work phone___________________________
Send check or money order, payable
to DUSTOFF Association, to:
DUSTOFF Association
P. O. Box 8091
Wainwright Station
San Antonio, TX 78208
You may register online using your credit card at <http://dustoff.org>.
PAGE 28
The DUSTOFFer