542nd Medical Company Medevac Crews in Action

By Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD

Spc. Brandon Baskin, a native of Colville, Wash., team chief, 542nd Medical Company. Photo: Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD

Tikrit, Iraq - You never know when the call will come and within seconds you'll be sprinting toward a Blackhawk helicopter, donning your armor and lifting off.

Soldiers with the 542nd Medical Company keep their gear on their Blackhawk while it's parked on the flight line because their lives in Iraq revolve around the oath that within ten minutes after a medevac call comes in they will be off the ground and hurtling through the air toward whomever needs their help.

"It's an adrenaline rush," Spc. Brandon Baskin, a native of Colville, Wash., explained about what it's like immediately after the call comes in. "You go from zero to sixty like that. There's no slack time."

Baskin was thrust into a team chief spot, typically not given to specialists, and it's early in his crew's 75-hour work shift. He's doing his rounds, making sure everything is squared away like a good team chief should do when a call crackles over his handheld radio.

Staff Sgt. Atwon Thompkins, a flight medic and Warrenton, Ga. native. Photo: Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD

It's another member of his crew; a medevac has been called in.

"When you hear the 'medevac, medevac, medevac!' you just grab your weapon, grab your shirt, and you're en-route to the aircraft," Baskin said. "I consider every call urgent until I find out otherwise, which means I'm running."

Baskin accelerates to sixty and begins rushing toward the helicopter where he finds his crew already beginning to prep the Blackhawk for flight.

Within minutes of the "nine-line" medevac being called in, the Blackhawk is kicking up dust and taking off. Baskin doesn't hesitate to let in on the secret to getting off the ground quickly.

"Practice; it's just flat-out practice," he said.
1st Lt. Samuel Sinclair, the pilot and Versailles, Mo. native, explained the necessity of the intensity and speed of getting the bird off the ground quickly.

"Every minute counts," he said. "Any amount of time that we can give the medic so that he can provide quality care to the patient helps to save that patient. We've got to be very quick about what we're doing."

Tikrit, Iraq (Mar. 7, 2006) Coalition troops rush an Iraqi soldier with a gunshot wound to a blackhawk for a medevac. Photo: Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD

In this case, the patient was stable. An Iraqi Army soldier with a gunshot wound needed to be transported to the medical cache at Contingency Operating Base Speicher for further treatment. But, there are times when the patient isn't stable. In those cases, every second counts.

Once the Blackhawk made it to the landing zone, medics attending the Iraqi soldier on the ground hastily carried the patient on a litter to the bird. And, within seconds of preparing an IV, the helicopter was off again.

Inside the cabin of the helicopter, basically a portable emergency room, Staff Sgt. Atwon Thompkins, a flight medic and Warrenton, Ga. native, tended to the hurt Iraqi soldier as the Blackhawk flew to the medical cache.

"It's kind of tight, you just got to know what you are doing," he said. "You have to stay current with your medical skills."

Photo: Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD

Thompkins trains every day on his medical skills in order to stay sharp. Today's mission was during the daylight hours, but there are times when night missions happen and he has to be precise with his treatment.

The entire mission took less than an hour and ended with the Blackhawk dropping the wounded Iraqi Army soldier off with the ground medics.

From start to finish, Sinclair said the medevac crew performed exceptionally, especially with the help from the ground medics who he boasts are really "the stars of the show".

"This mission was very text-book," Sinclair said. "If you showed everyone the highlights of this mission, they'd be looking at a bottled medevac mission."

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