Refueling crew, maintainers and medics work together to save 'brother-in-arms'

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  "When you think about the amount of resources that were put together - 17 personnel on a $93 million aircraft, with I don't know how many thousands of pounds of fuel - to get one guy back to Ramstein and get him better, that's pretty awesome," said Capt. Dave Garon. 

That's the mission commander's description of how he and an augmented aircrew from the 351st Air Refueling Squadron transformed their jet into a "flying hospital" Jan. 21 to transport a Marine from Liberia to Ramstein Air Base, Germany for medical attention. 

The Marine - who was in critical need of medical care unavailable at his location - was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia, on the west coast of Africa. 

The call came in Jan. 19 around 8:15 p.m., and the crew was immediately put on 12-hour crew rest. 

During that time the crew put together flight plans, studied the airfield they were heading to, attended weather briefings and received intelligence briefings, according to Capt. Doug Foster, 100th Operations Support Squadron. 

"There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes during those 12 hours," said Captain Garon. "When we show up, we're asking questions to make sure everything's been taken care of, such as, 'Do we have diplomatic clearances?', 'Do we need cash to pay for fuel?', and 'Do we need weapons?'" 

Captains Greg Miller and Rob Arnett (both 351st ARS) performed preflight inspections on the jet before the crew started the engines and took off around noon Monday. 

"We arrived at Ramstein about an hour and 15 minutes later and met up with the medical commander for the mission," Captain Foster said. "He briefed us on what was going on; (the troops at Ramstein) started loading all their equipment." 

Flexibility was key. 

"The mission was evolving as we were moving down," said Captain Garon. "When we flew to Ramstein, (we still didn't have Spanish or Liberian diplomatic clearances), so we were still working that issue. It's a lot of adapting to the mission - it's still being built around you as you're moving on." 

Two hours after landing in Ramstein, the crew flew directly to Naval Air Station Rota, Spain, where they had to stay overnight due to a requirement to only fly into Liberia during the day, said Captain Foster. 

After leaving Rota, the aircrew landed in Liberia at about 2:15 p.m. Monday, and they were on the ground for less than two hours while they refueled. 

"Staff Sgt. (Robert) Lefors (100th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron) was our crew chief, and he did an excellent job getting the (aircraft refueled) and working with the host nationals," said Captain Garon. 

"We don't often get the opportunity to fly aeromedical flights with the 100th ARW, but we were able to integrate our two teams into one and perform our mission in a quick and safe manner," Capt. Jason Nafts, 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Ramstein Air Base, and medic commander for the mission wrote in an e-mail Jan. 25. 

"Captain Garon's crew was very helpful and anything we needed to transport (the patient) was gladly taken care of," he added. "Our patient was stabilized at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and will be on today's (Jan. 25) Aeromedical mission to the states, where he will be receiving more definitive care. Without Captain Garon and his crew, we wouldn't have been able to get the patient out of Africa and to the states in such a timely manner." 

Captain Garon said the experience was definitely a change of pace. 

"It was a little bit different than the way we normally run missions - usually you have specific timing; everything is pre-planned," he said. "On a mission that's an aeromedical evacuation, you're constantly pushing the whole time. You're pushing to get off the ground, you're pushing to move fast because you want to get down there and get (the patient to medical care) as fast as possible." 

The 351st ARS aircrew said usually the time on the ground at a stop is about four hours, but they managed to keep it to less than two hours at each stop, which the officers said was a tribute to their maintainers. 

"As (U.S. Air Forces in Europe) does more in Africa, this kind of stuff has become more relevant," Capt. Garon said. "We're really the only organic asset USAFE has that can do this so quickly, so we need to get down there fast enough to get these guys out." 

Captain Arnett said the augmented crew helped make the mission so successful. 

"Carrying the extra guys really helped out," he said. "It allowed us to have 24 hours of duty day to get the mission completed once we left Spain, and we wouldn't have been able to do it if we didn't have them. We all trusted each other to do what we were supposed to do, and when the time came we were able to execute the mission and not skip a beat." 

When the crew members heard they were to be part of this mission, they were very excited. 

"I jumped at the opportunity," said Tech. Sgt. Jason Resler, 351st ARS boom operator on the mission. "I've never done anything like this before, but being a part of that - when you know you're actually making a difference in somebody's life - is awesome. When you're refueling, you don't get to see the end result, but this time we got to see it from (start to finish)." 

Other members of the mission's aircrew were Capt. Greg Miller, Tech. Sgt. William McQueen, and maintainers, Airmen 1st Class Joshua Wainwright and Carl Flint.