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New heritage center display celebrates aeromedical evac

  • Published
  • By 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs and Travis Heritage Center
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  "We are not the heroes, we just bring them home."

This is the motto of the men and women who serve in the Aero Medical Evacuation Squadrons throughout the Air Force.

Creating an aero medical evacuations display at the Heritage Museum has been a goal for the heritage center staff.

"It's something that has been overlooked here at the museum," said Terry Juran, Travis Heritage Museum curator. "Travis has had aero medical evacuation personnel stationed here for many years. We've always had this mission at Travis and we wanted a display to highlight that."

After 10 months of work, the aero medical evacuations display is ready for viewers, so they can learn about the history and importance of the mission here at Travis.

"They need to be acknowledged for all of the incredible things that they do," Juran said. "They are truly heroes of the very highest caliber that give hope to our wounded warriors."

There is a long history of how the aero medical evacuations teams were established.

At the beginning of World War II, AE did not exist as an established military doctrine, but the need to transport large numbers of casualties from the forward operating areas back to the rear were the wounded could be treated was evident. To help move these patients, the Army Air Force started using empty cargo aircraft that had just dropped off supplies to the front.

Brig. Gen. David Grant, an AAF Air Surgeon, proposed establishing a Flight Nurse Corps and in February 1943, the first class of Flight Nurses graduated from a four week training course at Bowman Field, KY. During 1945, in a single day, 4,704 were moved by air, setting a one day record for most patients moved by AE. Unlike World War I, the wounded of World War II had a 71 percent survival rate because of the AE implementation.

By the time the Korean War broke out, AE had become the preferred method of evacuation for casualties. During the Vietnam conflict advancements in the AE were made, which resulted in the survival rate being pushed up to 82 percent.

The modern day Critical Care Air Transport Team concept was developed back in 1988 by two doctors who envisioned a highly portable Intensive Care Unit with sophisticated capabilities being carried in backpacks that could match that of a ground ICU Functionality.

The concept of CCATT was further developed at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Lt. Col. Steve Derdak, Maj. Bill Beninati, Maj. Tom Grissom, Maj. Mike Wall, Lt. Col. Rick Hersack and many other key individuals the program developed during Joint Task Force deployments in Cuba and Haiti, Eastern Europe and Africa.

Today's CCATT consists of highly skilled teams of three people. First is a physician specializing in areas such as critical care, emergency medicine, anesthesiology and surgery. Next is a critical care nurse and finally a respiratory therapist. The CCATT system is able to be loaded on mobile pallets making it possible to turn any cargo aircraft that accepts pallets into a flying ICU. Combined with other advances in field medical care, the survival rate has now reached an astonishing 98 percent rate.

For a more in-depth history of the aero medical evacuation, visit the Travis Heritage museum or call 707-424-5883.