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Air Force C-17s can still “take fight to the enemy!”

December 29th, 2008 Comments off
The men and women of Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina launched 13 C-17s demonstrating "that we are ready to take the fight to the enemy!" even though many aircraft and Airmen are deployed around the world. The mission included a single pass over Charleston's most famous landmark, the Ravenel Bridge, air refueling and air drops.

US Air Force photo. For more photos, click here.


Posted by Captain David Faggard, Air Force Public Affairs.

US Air Force Airmen perform daring rescue at sea

December 11th, 2008 Comments off
U.S. Air Force Airmen and aircraft were part of an international effort over the Atlantic Ocean late Wednesday that saved the life of a crew member who suffered a life-threatening head injury onboard a cargo ship over 320 miles west of Cork, Ireland.



The Burmese crew member was injured at sea on a Liberian-flagged cargo vessel when he fell 40 feet from a container, sustaining injuries that couldn’t be properly treated on board the ship.

In coordination with British rescue officials, a U.S. Air Force command and control hub in Germany orchestrated numerous assets from the United Kingdom to rescue the crew member in little more than 12 hours.

The British Ministry of Defense realized the need for longer distance air-refuelable helicopters in order to reach the sea-going vessel and called on a UK-based U.S. Air Force unit for assistance.





As the Royal Air Force launched a Nimrod maritime surveillance aircraft from RAF Kinloss in Scotland to monitor the situation and provide communication support, the U.S. Air Force began quickly putting a plan into action.

The 603rd Air Operations Center, Personnel Recovery Coordination Cell, at Ramstein, Germany, provided coordination for all necessary players making the mission possible.

The 56th Rescue Squadron out of the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, UK, put highly-trained pararescuemen on two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters who medically attend to the injured man.

The 352nd Special Operations Group out of RAF Mildenhall provided their 67th Special Operations Squadron’s MC-130P Combat Shadow aerial refueler to refuel the helicopters given its specific capability to do so. Because the distance was so far, the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, UK, provided a KC-135 to refuel the Combat Shadow.
At approximately 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Air Force PJs reached the patient and were able to stabilize the crew member sufficiently to be safely hoisted to an HH-60G and flown to dry land.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. the helos touched down in Shannon in the Republic of Ireland, where an ambulance was waiting to transport the patient to a local hospital. The patient was admitted and is now in stable condition.






Posted by Captain David Faggard, Air Force Public Affairs

US Air Force ensures good ‘Landings’ for deployed Airmen

December 10th, 2008 Comments off
Posted at http://www.pacafpixels.blogspot.com/, originally written by Lt. Col. Marie Colasanti, Chief of the Behavioral Health Branch at Pacific Air Forces.



A new study by the Institute of Medicine featured in a New York Times article today brings to light the importance of understanding the long-term effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) experienced by our combat veterans. This is a great intro to what our military is doing in order to treat our war-injured military, especially those with TBI... PACAF is utilizing the Air Force Surgeon General's standardized pre- and post-deployment education program called "Landing Gear," using the metaphor that, no matter how powerful an aircraft is in the air, functioning landing gear is necessary to safely launch and recover. The focus of Landing Gear is on brief education to hopefully increase the recognition of Airmen suffering from traumatic stress symptoms and connect them with helping resources. Landing Gear has been implemented Air Force-wide and we have sent the training material to all mental health professionals throughout PACAF.In addition to the Landing Gear program, PACAF will also be implementing a Baseline Pre-Deployment Neurocognitive Assessment Testing (NCAT) for our troops planning to deploy. TBI is a condition that is affecting many of our returning warriors. Unfortunately, it is difficult to measure the degree of injury without baseline data. Therefore, DoD is requiring every deployer to be tested with the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) within 12 months prior to deployment. This should help us establish a basis for future comparative review should a suspected TBI occur. The plan is for each Medical Treatment Facility (MTF) to receive one to three computers loaded with the ANAM software from Health Affairs. Our MTFs here at PACAF will be prepared to initiate testing within two weeks of receiving the computers with the ANAM software.



Posted by Captain David Faggard, Air Force Public Affairs