"This could be my brother"

Package from Air Force News about the Mississippi Air National Guard's 172nd Airlift Wing. Their mission originates in Jackson, Mississippi, flies to Ramstein AB in Germany to pick up medical supplies and personnel from the 445th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, then continues on to Balad AB in Iraq where patients are loaded on to the aircraft for medical evacuation back to Germany.

The video gives a sense of the tremendous effort around a single medevac mission which of course involves many, many additional personnel not shown here. Now imagine that over 50,000 patients have been medevaced out of the Iraq theater alone since 2003, and you get a feeling for the magnitude of the total Air Force achievement over the past five years.

I suppose that could sound like a conveyor belt-type of operation, but for these Airmen, it's not.

"You're airlifting mothers, brothers, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters of people and you relate to your own family... it's like... this could be my brother."

Thanks to these Airmen for treating our guys like family, and for all they do.


See also:
Aeromedical Evacuation from Balad, Iraq to Ramstein Germany
Critical Care Air Transport: Balad, Iraq to Ramstein, Germany