High Priority Care:

Pacific Air Force’s 3rd Medical Group at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, over the past year has worked to ensure that Alaskan soldiers and airmen injured in the war on terror get back to Alaska for their continued medical treatment, reports journalist 2nd Lt. Erin Slaughter. The group follows Alaskan service members once they become a patient in a hospital in Iraq or Afghanistan and enter the Transportation Command Regulating and Command and Control Evacuation System. Elmendorf healthcare providers track them via TRAC2ES and start trying to get them routed to the Elmendorf hospital. Col. Elisha Powell, 3rd MDG commander, said, “It’s hard enough for someone to be wounded, but then you displace them and it just multiplies the problem.”