Air Force Reserve Command provides some 80 percent of the Air Force’s vaunted aeromedical evacuation capability, declared Lt. Gen. James Roudebush, Air Force Surgeon General, Wednesday at an Air Force seminar on Capitol Hill. He added that, in 2005 and 2006, AFRC had sent more than 890 medical personnel and the Air National Guard another 258 or so to the Southwest Asia theater of operations. Those reserve forces contributed greatly to the Defense Department’s all time low 7.2 percent died-of-wounds rate. Roudebush credited all military medics with participating in that tremendous success story and a new low disease non-battle injury rate. He also proudly pointed out that it now takes a short three days to transport a wounded soldier back home, which “greatly helps in the recovery.”
Search and rescue Airmen from Nellis Air Base, Nev., flew more than 200 miles in two HH-60W Jolly Green IIs last week to rescue five of their Navy helicopter crew counterparts who were forced to land in mountainous terrain near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.