Live from Afghanistan, it's Saturday night! Or, t_b_f's on the road!

Even cooler is how fast it got there. Have to be impressed with the Taliban postal service

 

Prayers headed your way.

 

My selection of nuts (no sj members included) is en route tomorrow!

 

Forgot how important simple sheets and towels are. Pick up a bunch of deeply discounted "irregular" sheets from the sales bin, and you'll have friends for life in the middle east. They don't care if they don't fit around mattresses ... since many of them living in tents don't have a mattress.

 

Second SJ package today!! Awesome. Thanks head'n out to fishhack for the grub. We immediately made a pot of 8 O'clock coffee. Can't beat that. You guys are really awesome folks, and we appreciate the support and thoughts.

*****

It appears we'll have our first major awards of the deployment. One of our medics is being put in for a bronze star for heroism under fire a couple of weeks ago. Two very experienced pilots were leading the crew and took the bird into a hot LZ where Marines were in heavy contact.

Apparently, just as an RPG missed the rotor system by about 10 feet, our medic slung the door open and moved under "accurate medium machine gun fire" to a 19-year old Marine who'd lost three limbs. He threw him onto his shoulder and ran about 200 meters back to the helicopter as the Marines laid down some (from what I gather) amazing cover fire. He threw the kid in the back of the helicopter, and they took off. He applied three tourniquets to the kid and stabilized him as best he could. The crew then went back into the the same LZ with the battle still going on (about 30 minutes later). The crew landed between the Marines and bad guys, and the same medic ran into the fire AGAIN and picked up a gunshot wound to head and saved the guy's fucking life. The other kid lived, too.

I know where my first beer's going when I get home. To a young sergeant. That guy's a fucking rock star.

 

Thank you for sharing these incredible stories.

 

3B - Happy Easter to you and the crew. Thanks for sharing that amazing story of heroism.

Don't be shy about letting us know if you guys need anything.

 

Holy shit on those stories. Thanks for sharing.

Excuse my ignorance (and I should probably know the answer to this already), but why does it seem like only Army medevacs fly wounded Marines in Afghanistan? Every AP or Getty picture I've seen of wounded Marines in Marjah in the last couple months shows them being flown out by the Army, and now I hear about you and others in the 101st supporting the Marines. Does the Corps not perform these sort of duties (I know their medics and doctors are from the Navy)? Or is it just a manpower issue (more Army assets in theater than Navy/Marine)?

 

The Army is the only branch with assets dedicated solely to medical evacuation from a point of injury. Can the Marines throw their wounded onto one of their helicopters? Yes, but the difference is that we are a dedicated resource and provide a certain level of enroute care by medics and physicians trained in air evacuation medicine. The Air Force's search and rescue birds pull some MEDEVAC duties in Afghanistan, as well, but they can't do the things we do, nor do they abide by the Geneva Conventions by carrying aircraft-mounted weapons. The Marines near Marjah (Helmand Province) do have some Air Force support, but now they like us so much they call us, rather than the Air Force.

No one else focuses on MEDEVAC like the Army.

And if you see any MEDEVAC aircraft in AP and Getty pictures that are identified as TF (Task Force) Shadow, that's my company.

 

Interesting, thanks for clearing that up. I'll keep my eye out for you guys.

Funny you mention that the Marines prefer the Army MEDEVAC to the Air Force guys. Reminds of a story my older brother told me about his time in Iraq. Whenever his battalion (he was an S3 in the 1st ID back then) needed close air support or air strikes, they'd always try to get the Navy to fly in instead of the Air Force. He said the Navy pilots were much more willing to take risks than the Air Force folks. Basically, the Navy did whatever the guys on the ground asked.

 

Came across another pretty amazing documentary on Medivac units in Afghanistan - The Golden Hour. Really herioc stunning stuff that the Medivac and Surgical teams are doing day in and day out.

3B - thinking this might be your base.

 

This is the best thread I've ever read on SportsJournalists.com, and I've been following it for a few years.

TBF - Godspeed. You, and everyone else over there, are heroes.