The article describes Air Force flight nurses transporting wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, to Germany then home to the states. During aeromedical evacuation missions, military flight nurses combat fatigue, stressors of nursing care at high altitudes, long hours, and multiple patients – and do so with a great sense of pride and honor. A subset of the flight nurses is the specialty Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT), comprised of an RN, MD and respiratory care therapist who care solely for critical care patients in flight.
For this story, I flew with the Air Force out of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. In Germany, I toured Ramstein Air Base, nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center where soldiers receive additional treatment, and flew back to Andrews on an aeromedical evacuation mission with the nurses and patients 9 hours back to Andrews. My trip occurred from Oct. 9-12, 2007. The article tells these nurses’ story of aeromedical evacuations and what drives them to do what they do.
This entry also includes the editorial I wrote regarding my personal experience. The editorial appeared in the same issue.
Most striking finding was how the majority of injuries are non-combat related. However, that statistic includes post-traumatic stress disorder, which many of the soldiers on the flight home exhibited.