Army MEDEVAC

[Entropy]

My unit is an AF HH-60G CSAR unit that will be deploying to Afghanistan as MEDEVAC for the ground force. We've been to Afghanistan a couple of times before, but have previously worked in the traditional CSAR role for the CFACC, though almost all our missions were MEDEVAC and not traditional CSAR. So we know the theater pretty well and our crews are tactically proficient. What I'm really looking for are some general MEDEVAC lesson's learned along with any specific gouge on AF CSAR filling this role. We've got some stuff from the AF side obviously, but the Army/Marine perspective would be very helpful. I think some of our people are working on AKO access, so NIPR or SIPR url's to products would be fine.

Thanks in advance!

[Tom Odom]

Go to CALL and get your access straight both on NIPR and SIPR. There is much on both sites that will help out.

Best

Tom

[jcustis]

I'd also recommend checking out the Lightfighter.net forum. The Military/Law Enforcement and Tactical Medicine forums have threads and posting members who can help as well. You might need to ask the mods for special access to the Mil/LEO forum because of vetting requirements, but I have routinely interacted with good folks who were either forward, or recently returned and they were always able to provide some solid guidance and/or issues for consideration.

[Xenophon]

I've called in three MEDEVAC's in an Army AO now, and for what it's worth, they were very responsive and understanding of the situation on the ground. I only had three US personnel on the ground and we were all providing first aid. The MEDEVAC birds were comfortable with an IA cordon and were just as responsive to our IA casualties as they are for CF casualties, for which I was very grateful. So good on you and them.

I know that's not what you're looking for, but just wanted to give some respect.

[Cavguy]

Agreed. They've never failed to come for us, and land in some testy places to get a soldier. Medics of all stripes are my heroes.

I'd also say the IA have been worshipful of our medics and birds - they cared for the IA just as a US soldier - and the IA respected that greatly.

[Entropy]

Well, thanks guys, that means alot. We'll pick up anyone if we get the call and in previous Afghan deployments we've picked up pretty much everyone - even some Taliban. We tend to get a lot of the night and low-vis calls simply because our birds are specialized for that.

We're definitely looking at CALL, etc., I just wanted to make sure we covered all the bases since finding stuff on NIPR and especially SIPR is often a complete ass-pain. Too many times I've discovered some important info buried in some obscure site somewhere. I have to say the Army has things right with CALL and the quality of the post-deployments lessons' learned I've read are pretty outstanding.

[VMI_Marine]

The only MEDEVAC I ran in A-stan, we had to winch the kid out. Sounds like your unit already has the experience to know this, but if you can train on that with actual ground units in a mountainous area, that would probably be beneficial to both you and the ground guys.

[Entropy]

The only MEDEVAC I ran in A-stan, we had to winch the kid out. Sounds like your unit already has the experience to know this, but if you can train on that with actual ground units in a mountainous area, that would probably be beneficial to both you and the ground guys.

Yeah, we do all the alternate extraction techniques, though obvious air-land is the preferred method. We do go through a set of workups and mountain training, but unfortunately, we're not able to practice with actual Army personnel. I think we get ourselves pretty prepared though, especially since we're experienced in the AOR. The only thing we don't have experience with is working directly for the CFLCC.