Who Fights This War? -- MEDEVAC Pilot

This story ran in my newsletter yesterday and today 34th division published it in their newsletter and on their web site. I am posting it on my blog also because I really like the story.
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Maj. Anthony Meador is near the end of his third tour Iraq as an Army aviator. He served in Baghdad in 2004 and at Joint Base Balad in 2007. He now commands Company C, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, a Wainwright, Alaska, based Army unit currently attached to 2nd Battalion, 104th Aviation Regiment, 28th Combat Aviation Brigade.

During his first tour Meador served as a MEDEVAC pilot during some of the most intense fighting in the war. "We were slammed in 2004 and in April things got really bad," he said. "One night we evacuated 44 soldiers in two and a half hours on six Black Hawks. We had burns, gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds…the 2/5 Cavalry got ambushed in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. The whole year was non-stop for all of us."

Meador returned home in 2005 to his wife and his first baby boy, who is now five. He had almost two years of stateside duty before returning to Iraq with the surge of troops in 2007. "I was executive officer of a (General Support Aviation Battalion) based in Balad so I flew every kind of aircraft we had," said Meador. "With the surge, the operating tempo was high. Part of our mission was flying General (David) Petraeus, General (Raymond) Odierno and Ambassador (Ryan) Crocker."

His first two tours were filled with high-intensity, around-the-clock operations, but the weather was great. "In Baghdad and Balad the weather was not an issue. It was sunny all the time, no dust storms,” Meador said. At Contingency Operating Base Adder in 2009, the intensity of operations is often lower, but "the weather shapes every aspect of our mission planning: weather here, weather at the destination, weather along the route. We are constantly updating our planning based on the weather."

Difficult weather forces tough decisions with MEDEVAC flights. One of the toughest decisions for Meador on this tour was whether to fly on July 2. A call came in from the Adder emergency room. A patient with a pulmonary embolism needed immediate transport to Balad for a type of surgery not available here. Charlie Company would fly the patient to Al Kut and transfer him to a waiting medevac helicopter for transport to Balad.

The first segment of the flight was just 300 meters from the Charlie hangars to the COB Adder emergency room, but that flight was enough for Meador to reconsider the wisdom of flying with visibility less than a half mile in a huge dust storm. According to Meador, winds were 30 knots with gusts up to 45 knots. Vertical visibility was 125 feet. To further complicate the flight plan, the patient's condition meant they had to fly close to the ground, as pulmonary embolisms are aggravated by altitude.

Maj. Anthony Meador, a MEDEVAC pilot in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, Task Force Keystone, inspects the tail rotor of a Black Hawk helicopter. Meador is wrapping up his third tour in Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Neil Gussman)
"We had to stay extremely low anyway because visibility was worse at 1000 feet. But flying at 50 to 75 feet with power lines and towers is very difficult," Meador said.

As they flew from the hangar to the clinic, he said, "We're going to have another conversation with the physician. I am about 60 to 70 percent sure we are going to cancel this mission.”

Staff Sgt. Jason Jones, a flight medic, talked to the physician on duty. The clot was moving toward the patient's lungs and heart and he would die without surgery at Balad. When Jones confirmed the patient's prognosis, Meador decided to go ahead with the mission. "When you get a patient on board, you're committed," he said. "Once you leave the airfield with a patient on board you’re committed to the entire mission."

"The trip to Al Kut is usually 43 minutes," said Meador. "We flew low and slow for an hour and 20 minutes. The chase bird was at our altitude, flanked right and about 10 rotor disks behind us." Meador explained that ten rotor disks, approximately 100 yards, is much closer than the normal following distance of 30 to 40 rotor disks, but necessary because of the low visibility. "We were coordinating moment to moment throughout the entire flight. When one of us would pick up a power line or a tower, we would advise the other right away."

Eighty minutes after takeoff, they landed safely and transferred the patient to a waiting MEDEVAC helicopter for transport to the Balad medical facility. They refueled and returned to COB Adder. The patient arrived at Balad in time and got the surgery he needed.

Meador has served 14 years as an Army Medical Service officer. He is a 1995 graduate of Virginia Military Institute. He and his wife Margaret have two boys, ages three and five. Meador calls Galax, Va., home and is currently assigned to Fort Wainwright, Alaska, where he will return after his current tour of duty.

Who Fights This War? -- Clerks Rescue Soldiers in Black Hawk Crash

These soldiers are clerks in Echo Company. Both of them are good soldiers who took a lot of crap from the mechanics and fuelers in the unit because most of their work is done indoors. Things are different now.
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Pfc. Dennis Lucas of Gratz, Pa., and Spc. Nathan Montgomery of Chester, W.Va., both clerks in the motor pool of Echo Company, 2nd Battalion,104th Aviation Regiment, 28th Combat Aviation Brigade, helped perform first aid on victims after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed at Joint Base Balad Sept. 19.

Spc. Michael S. Cote, 20, of Denham Springs, La., was killed in the crash and 12 others were injured.

On that night, Montgomery and Lucas were in the containerized housing unit they shared preparing to return to Contingency Operating Base Adder the following morning. According to Montgomery, at roughly 8.p.m. he and Lucas heard a loud boom. Since there had been thunderstorms in the area during the preceding days, they first thought the noise was thunder. “We kept seeing rain and lightning and no thunder,” Lucas said. “So we thought this was the thunder.”

Montgomery went outside to smoke a cigarette and saw a man run up to the fence opposite their CHU and yell for help. He said he was the pilot of a helicopter that just crashed. Montgomery yelled for Lucas. “I was in flip-flops,” Lucas said, “so I put on sneakers and ran.” They ran to the fence, ripped a section of the fence from the ground, crawled under it and followed the pilot to the crash site.

"The Black Hawk was a mess," Montgomery said. Two Soldiers were outside the aircraft and on the ground when they got to the scene of the crash. "There were four of us that ran to the scene. Two other Soldiers who were outside their CHUs followed us over.”

"One of the Soldiers outside the helicopter was complaining of back pain, but he knew he was at Balad and he could move his legs and arms so we moved to the Soldiers in the bird," Montgomery said. "I went to a guy with his face busted up. He was missing teeth and was in a lot of pain, so I stayed with him. It turned out he had a broken jaw, broken teeth, a collapsed lung, internal bleeding in the abdomen and was fading by the time we got him loaded in the ambulance."

"Lucas went to a guy (Michael Cote) who was really bad. Lucas held him in his arms waiting for the medics, but he had a bad head injury,” Montgomery said. "The Soldier died in Lucas' arms. Lucas held him while he died."

After Cote was taken from Lucas, he continued to assist with getting other Soldiers clear of the wreckage. Montgomery stayed with his Soldier.

“He is a sergeant and crew chief of the Black Hawk,” Montgomery said. “He has a wife and two boys. The boys play soccer. I know all about his family. I know their names. The thing I want to know the most is how he is doing. He was fading at the end, starting to lose consciousness. I want to know if he made it.”

According to Montgomery, the EMS crews had to cut through a fence to get to the crash site and all of the patients had to be carried 150 yards to the vehicle. Montgomery was at the front of the litter for three patients. "I never was the lead guy on the litter in training, but I remembered what to do,” he said.
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According to Montgomery, other witnesses said the pilot did an amazing job to get the Black Hawk down in the one open field in the entire area.

"There were (shipping containers) and CHUs and fences all around and he got it down in the one open area," he said. "There were surgeons on scene in (physical training) gear. People just ran to the scene. The last guy out was a really big sergeant with a broken leg who had to be cut from the wreckage."

“I felt like I was a passenger in my own body,” said Lucas. “I was calm the whole time. I knew what I was doing and I did what they trained us to do in (Combat Life Saver training). I thought the whole thing took about 20 minutes but it was an hour and a half.”

Lucas believes the training made the difference in how he and Montgomery reacted compared to others at the scene. “Some people ran up to the crash then stopped. Others just watched. I never ran so fast in my life as that hundred yards from the fence to the wreckage and I just went to work. Army, Marines, Air Force people all worked together to help.”

"The CLS training really kicked in," said Montgomery. "We didn't think. We just knew what to do. The pilot yelled for help. We were there so we went. Anybody would have done the same. I tell you what though, these guys are burned into our heads."

You Light Up My Life. . .

Bike Line just send me a shipment with two tubes, ten spokes, a Gatorskin tire for my road bike and a Seca 700 headlight. The people who can't believe I would spend more than $200 for a bicycle (the same people who spent $1,000--no kidding--on pizza and other delivery food) will be aghast if they find out I spent $415 for a bike light.

But what a great light. Instead of straining my eyes and riding slowly around the dark side of the base, I can ride as fast as I want with a headlight that throws a beam more than a football field. In fact, I am riding back to the office on the south side of the base in a few minutes and will ride fully illuminating my path.

Also, Larry Wise the Bike Guy here on base fixed my spoke so I can ride the Mountain Bike. The garrison put fresh gravel on a 200-yard stretch of road the south side that makes it hard for me to ride the road bike--I have to ride in the soft sand beside the road.

In other news, three of my stories got picked up by a combat medic who blogs at www.ffpblog.com the "Far From Perfect" blog. He linked to both of the flight medic stories, and also linked to a post titled "Eight Minutes and Gone" which I did not send for publication. Maybe I should. Second weekly newsletter goes out tomorrow. Let me know if you want a PDF.

Flight Cancelled

I was supposed to be in a Blackhawk now flying to a couple of the nearby small bases, but the flight got cancelled. Somebody with a real mission got the seat, so I am labelling photos and getting ready to transfer them to an Army computer.

This morning was the Ruck March half marathon. Since I was supposed to fly, I did not pick up my number. I suppose I could have walked, but I took some pictures of participants, then took a nap until the walkers were coming back in.

On Monday, I sent the first issue of a new newsletter I am doing for the battalion (700 soldiers). It is a six-page newsletter that goes the soldiers and families in the states by PDF. The layout is in PowerPoint! I would not have thought PowerPoint is the way to do a newsletter, but it is really easy to use--easier than Word. Of course, it is very limited in what it can do. I have very rectangular layouts. But it is a newsletter so it should be fine. I will be sending the newsletter every Monday morning from now till we leave.

Coincidentally, the Brigade (2000 soldiers) will also switch to a weekly format from a monthly. The article that was the Medevac Pilot who is also a state trooper will be on the cover of their newsletter, also Monday morning.

Part of my charge is to do Daily Life stories. So this week I followed a day maintenance team from the unit that flies only at night. I also followed the crew that sets up the helicopters to fly.

If you want the newsletter, send me an email or tell me in a comment.

So now I write stories, take pictures and go to events full time. Of course, I ride my bike everywhere.

War is Hell!

Who Fights This War? -- Flight Medic 2

This story was published on line on Wednesday and was also in a weekly newsletter I do now as part of my new job.

When the United States led coalition forces in the invasion of Iraq in
2003, SSG Quincy Northern, 32, began his first of three deployments as
a flight medic. For the first months of the war Northern flew MEDEVAC
along the invasion route led by the US Marines. "It was non-stop action
from the time we crossed the wire," said Northern describing his first
deployment following the Marines across Iraq in the opening days of
the war.

One MEDEVAC call he remembered vividly was an all-terrain, 8-wheel-
drive HEMMT cargo truck that hit a mine and rolled over. The call itself
was not out of the ordinary. He and his crew responded to many calls
for trucks that hit mines or had rolled over and trapped the badly
injured crew. What made this rescue different was the landing zone.
"They marked out the LZ (Landing Zone) right in the minefield," said
Northern. "We didn't know till we got to the vehicle that the bird and
us were right in the minefield."


They continued the mission. All of the Marines survived. Landing in a
minefield made Northern very conscious of security on MEDEVAC
flights. "When the 9-line (MEDEVAC call) comes in I review it to be as
prepared as I can to treat the injury. Then I think about security issues.
When we land I have to be ready to go and treat the injury, not be
thinking about anything else."

Northern enlisted in 1996 and trained as a flight medic in 2002. He
went to Kuwait in January of 2003 in preparation for the invasion and
followed the Marines until June. He was back in Iraq from March of
2004 to March of 2005 and returned in 2008 with Charlie Company 1-
52nd Aviation Brigade. The Alaska-based unit is currently attached to 2-
104th General Services Aviation Battalion. Northern says the current
deployment is by far the easiest. "On the first deployment we slept on
the bird," he said. "We slept in the same litters that carried the
patients."

Northern is a Native of Baton Rouge and admits to being an adrenaline
junkie, but says when he retires from active duty in seven years, his life
is going to be different. "When I retire, I am going to a get a job where
the toughest thing is just showing up every morning," he said with a
wide smile. He is married with two children, a boy and a girl. His wife is
staying with her family in Ellicott City, Maryland, until Northern
returns from deployment.

Bike Update

As of yesterday, September 30, I passed the 3000-mile mark here in Iraq. I also cut 2 minutes from my 5k run time the previous week. It is much easier to improve when one is slow. Last week I ran it in 30 minutes and 20 seconds. This week I was down to 28:22. The civilian who runs the race gave me a medal for finishing 3rd in 50-plus (out of three guys who signed up). It was really a close race between the first two guys--they finished in 23:14 and 23:20. I was most of a half mile back in third.

The bike mileage means I have also made more than 200 laps of Tallil Ali's Perimeter Road. Katharine Sanderson, a friend from the UK, wrote recently. I replied to her something about the war. She said, "Somehow I forget that you're fighting a war at all. Weird. It must be your witty blog posts about books and PR!"

Along the same lines, my wife said, "I'm enjoying the other-personal glimpses on your blog.  Since I've been wrestling so intently with my students over verbs, I think your "fights" (as in "Who fights this war?") catches my eye . . . especially because there's not really any traditional fighting going on in your stories.  I know that "Who prosecutes this war?" doesn't have the same cachet, so I'm not suggesting you change this at all."

But they are right. Who would know from most of my blog posts or my current bike mileage that I am serving in a war?

I have more "Who Fights This War?" stories and will post another one tomorrow. Whether fight is the right word or not, we are here, there is a war and so I'll keep the word fight.

Envy is Relative

I have a new office. A really nice office. An occasion for envy for everyone in the unit I left and for many people who come to visit the other people that work in my office. The people in my office are the battalion commander, the executive officer, and their assistant--and me. I have an office with a real wooden desk, a book case, a table, a comfortable chair and a door.

I was working in a dusty corner of the motor pool on a folding table. This is a big step up in the world. But then, as my wife pointed out when I told her about my new digs, nobody I work with back home would be jealous. My new office is in a trailer. It is an Italian-made, double-wide, really nice trailer, but it is still a trailer and I still have to walk 75 meters to use the latrine trailer.

But it does have a coffee maker.

And the boss is a member of the Pennsylvania legislature so he gets an incredible amount of free stuff from home. So the office has great snacks.

I should get to stay in this office for three of the four months until we are finally back home. Late January to early February is becoming a more and more concrete time for us to get home.

I can't wait.