AE team to speak at Fall Corona Warrior Briefing

  • Published
  • By Capt. Karen Croteau
  • 15th Air Mobility Operations Squadron
Southwest Asia --  While flying a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed near Kandahar, Afghanistan in February 2007.

Miraculously, 11 of the 22 Soldiers on board survived their injuries due in part to the skill and professionalism displayed by members of the USAF's Aeromedical Evacuation team.

Lt. Col. Lenora Cook, a flight nurse and member of the 615th Contingency Response Wing, is a key member of that team. Currently deployed for 365 days to the Combined Air and Space Operations Center in Southwest Asia, Colonel Cook helped coordinate the aircraft and medical personnel required to quickly evacuate the crash survivors from the combat zone.

Shortly after the incident, Colonel Cook shared this particular medical evacuation story with the Air Force Times, and recently, Air Mobility Command selected several members of the AE community to brief this mission at the 2007 Fall CORONA held at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

This event is a unique opportunity for those individuals executing the mission to share their story with today's Air Force senior leaders. 

The briefing brought together members from the total force: Active Duty, Guard and Reserves.

Capt.'s Karen Croteau and Kristen McCabe, flight nurses from the 615th CRW, led the team of briefers. The story highlights the movement of the 11 survivors from the time the patients were delivered to a coalition hospital in Afghanistan until they returned to the United States.

AE missions generated in the desert are coordinated by the Aeromedical Evacuation Control Team located in the Combined Air Operations Center. The briefing includes a member from the AECT as well as two members from the Critical Care Air Transport Team and AE crew, as well as the aircraft commander from the C-17 Globemaster III transport plane, and the charge nurse from the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

All 11 patients were transported to Germany for definitive care within 21 hours of the crash during the successful mission. This would not have been possible without teamwork across the spectrum. Initial search and rescue efforts brought patients to a coalition hospital for care.

Coalition forces performed surgeries and initial medical stabilization to ensure the patients survived a six-hour flight to Germany. In the air, two CCAT teams accompanied one AE crew to care for the seriously injured patients enroute to Germany. The AECT located within the Air Mobility Division coordinated with the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott AFB, Ill., to ensure all mission requirements were met before the mission launched and continued throughout the entire mission.

After receiving support from Active Duty, Guard and Reserve servicemembers, all 11 patients were transported safely to the U.S.