Nicki Sobecki

Dustoff: US Army Medevac

The Helicopter Medevac teams of Task Force Destiny, based at Forward Operating Base Dwyer in Afghanistan's war-torn Helmand Province have a tough job. Servicing a large area that includes still-restive southern Marjah, and much of the Helmand River Valley, TF Destiny answers the call to transport gravely wounded US Marines and Afghan civilians from the point of injury in the field to Role 3 trauma centers on bases in the area--often times landing under fire to extract Marines and soldiers that would otherwise succumb to their wounds. After the Medevac helicopter and it's "chase" UH-60 Blackhawk companion aircraft get a call, they can be on the ground picking up a patient in as little as 20 minutes--delivering the fallen to a surgical theater within what flight medics refer to as "the golden hour"--or the hour after a catastrophic injury during which a patients transfer from basic battlefield triage care to a modern trauma surgical unit can mean the difference between life and death.

Two Marines wounded by an improvised explosive device run to a waiting medevac helicopter in southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan, November 30, 2010.
   
A Marine wounded by an improvised explosive device is cared for in a medevac helicopter in southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan, November 30, 2010.
   
(l) A Marine wounded by an improvised explosive device watches as a fellow Marine is cared for in a medevac helicopter in southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (r) A Marine wounded by an improvised explosive device is cared for in a medevac helicopter.
     
  
An armed "chase" helicopter follows the medevac helicopter on a mission in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, November 18, 2010.
   
Spc. Jaime Adame, a medic from an air ambulance crew from Company C, Sixth Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, watches as a young, female Afghan civlian is placed in the back of a waiting Blackhawk. The crews, working from Camp Dwyer, fly missions in southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan, November 24, 2010.
   
(l) Staff Sgt. Richard Jarrett, a flight medic, right, and Spc. Thomas Burns, a crew chief, center, treat an Afghan civilian with a gunshot wound to the neck while his friend watches on, Helmand Province, Afghanistan(r) An Afghan civilian looks on as Spc. Thomas Burns, a crew chief, applies pressure to a gunshot wound on the patient’s neck. Out of respect for traditional customs, a male escort is often allowed to accompany the injured patient, especially in the case of women and children.
     
  
Staff Sergeant Christopher Meece, a crew chief in a United States Army's Dustoff medevac team, looks out from the window of a Black Hawk helicopter, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, November 24, 2010.
   
Marines and an Afghan National Army soldier carry an Afghan civilian wounded by insurgent gunfire on a stretcher to a waiting medevac helicopter in southern Helmand Province, Afghanistan, November 22, 2010.