ianstone
10-07-2010, 09:07 AM
Get us outta here! Explained, how medic battles to save the life of a captured Taliban on board a Black Hawk helicopter
By Tom Leonard (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Tom+Leonard)
Last updated at 8:52 AM on 7th October 2010
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Shot through his side, the enemy Afghan lies in agony on the floor of the helicopter, his life in the hands of the very soldiers he has sworn to kill.
Whether he is in a state to comprehend the irony of his situation is not clear, but the strained expression on Sgt Tyrone Jordan’s face shows it doesn’t matter who the patient is as he tries to put a drip into the Afghan’s arm.
He shouts over the din of the engines to the crew to turn on the medical monitor equipment behind him.
Beside him, a Marine from the unit that shot the Afghan during a firefight near Marja in Helmand province sits stony-faced, masking the adrenaline coursing through his veins as he guards the Black Hawk helicopter as it prepares for take-off.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/06/article-1318346-0B81C1FD000005DC-628_964x676.jpg The Medevac team are never far from their helicopter - they have to sleep within 50 yards of it. Equipment, body armour and helmets are always left on board
Sgt Jordan, from Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the unsung heroes of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan - the members of Dustoff, the Medevac teams that evacuate the injured by helicopter.
The medics operate under conditions of enormous physical and mental pressure, their days spent rushing from one blood-soaked casualty to the next.
Every emergency starts with a radio call that provides what is known as a nine-line report, which gives nine crucial details about the incident including its location, the number of wounded and the extent of the injuries - plus the threat from the enemy.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/06/article-1318346-0B81C6A0000005DC-458_472x293.jpg A Sikorsky Black Hawk: Millions are spent adapting them for Medevac use
The closest crew will already be getting ready while commanders decide whether it is a valid mission. The Medevac team are never far from their radio or their helicopter - they must sleep within 50 yards of the chopper. Equipment, body armour and helmets are always left on board, so they can run to it quicker.
The crew - a medic, a mechanic and two pilots - and that of their escort helicopter must be in the air within 15 minutes of the call, although Major Jason Davis, the Medevac commander in southern Afghanistan, told the Daily Mail they usually manage it in eight. The team must then get any casualties to hospital within 60 minutes - the fabled ‘golden hour’ - after which a patient’s chances of survival diminish rapidly.
Under the Geneva Convention, Medevac helicopters cannot be armed, so they are always followed by another Black Hawk carrying heavy machine-guns.
Despite their humanitarian role, the lack of guns makes the Medevac helicopters - identifiable by their red-cross insignia - a favoured target. As a result, flight plans change constantly: sometimes they fly high; sometimes low, zig-zagging at 175mph, before descending in a billowing cloud of dust.
The U.S. Army has around 30 flight medic crews on duty in Afghanistan at any one time and medics, like other troops, serve there on 12-month deployments. Major Davis says only one flight medic has been killed since they were deployed to Afghanistan in 2001. He died after his hoist cable broke. In August alone, flight medics evacuated more than 350 patients to hospitals, half of them Afghan civilians or enemy insurgents.
Many see this service as a crucial plank in the coalition forces’ attempt to win Afghan ‘hearts and minds’. Major Davis says: ‘The insurgents don’t care what happens to them, but we will give them the best care we can and return them home. Once they’re in the helicopter, it doesn’t matter whether they’re one of ours, an enemy or a civilian. They’re just a patient.’
This insurgent did survive and on recovery will be treated as another prisoner of war.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318346/Soldier-battles-save-Taliban-fighters-life-helicopter-Afghanistan.html#ixzz11g5gwNF4
By Tom Leonard (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Tom+Leonard)
Last updated at 8:52 AM on 7th October 2010
Comments (66) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318346/Soldier-battles-save-Taliban-fighters-life-helicopter-Afghanistan.html#comments)
Add to My Stories (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318346/Soldier-battles-save-Taliban-fighters-life-helicopter-Afghanistan.html)
Shot through his side, the enemy Afghan lies in agony on the floor of the helicopter, his life in the hands of the very soldiers he has sworn to kill.
Whether he is in a state to comprehend the irony of his situation is not clear, but the strained expression on Sgt Tyrone Jordan’s face shows it doesn’t matter who the patient is as he tries to put a drip into the Afghan’s arm.
He shouts over the din of the engines to the crew to turn on the medical monitor equipment behind him.
Beside him, a Marine from the unit that shot the Afghan during a firefight near Marja in Helmand province sits stony-faced, masking the adrenaline coursing through his veins as he guards the Black Hawk helicopter as it prepares for take-off.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/06/article-1318346-0B81C1FD000005DC-628_964x676.jpg The Medevac team are never far from their helicopter - they have to sleep within 50 yards of it. Equipment, body armour and helmets are always left on board
Sgt Jordan, from Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the unsung heroes of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan - the members of Dustoff, the Medevac teams that evacuate the injured by helicopter.
The medics operate under conditions of enormous physical and mental pressure, their days spent rushing from one blood-soaked casualty to the next.
Every emergency starts with a radio call that provides what is known as a nine-line report, which gives nine crucial details about the incident including its location, the number of wounded and the extent of the injuries - plus the threat from the enemy.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/06/article-1318346-0B81C6A0000005DC-458_472x293.jpg A Sikorsky Black Hawk: Millions are spent adapting them for Medevac use
The closest crew will already be getting ready while commanders decide whether it is a valid mission. The Medevac team are never far from their radio or their helicopter - they must sleep within 50 yards of the chopper. Equipment, body armour and helmets are always left on board, so they can run to it quicker.
The crew - a medic, a mechanic and two pilots - and that of their escort helicopter must be in the air within 15 minutes of the call, although Major Jason Davis, the Medevac commander in southern Afghanistan, told the Daily Mail they usually manage it in eight. The team must then get any casualties to hospital within 60 minutes - the fabled ‘golden hour’ - after which a patient’s chances of survival diminish rapidly.
Under the Geneva Convention, Medevac helicopters cannot be armed, so they are always followed by another Black Hawk carrying heavy machine-guns.
Despite their humanitarian role, the lack of guns makes the Medevac helicopters - identifiable by their red-cross insignia - a favoured target. As a result, flight plans change constantly: sometimes they fly high; sometimes low, zig-zagging at 175mph, before descending in a billowing cloud of dust.
The U.S. Army has around 30 flight medic crews on duty in Afghanistan at any one time and medics, like other troops, serve there on 12-month deployments. Major Davis says only one flight medic has been killed since they were deployed to Afghanistan in 2001. He died after his hoist cable broke. In August alone, flight medics evacuated more than 350 patients to hospitals, half of them Afghan civilians or enemy insurgents.
Many see this service as a crucial plank in the coalition forces’ attempt to win Afghan ‘hearts and minds’. Major Davis says: ‘The insurgents don’t care what happens to them, but we will give them the best care we can and return them home. Once they’re in the helicopter, it doesn’t matter whether they’re one of ours, an enemy or a civilian. They’re just a patient.’
This insurgent did survive and on recovery will be treated as another prisoner of war.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318346/Soldier-battles-save-Taliban-fighters-life-helicopter-Afghanistan.html#ixzz11g5gwNF4