Operation Unified Response - A Look Back

  • Published
  • By Capt. Shane Huff
  • 927th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs Office
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  From 16 January to 19 March 2010, Lieutenant Colonel Carolyn C. Newhouse, Commander of the 45th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadon (AES), was acting Commander of the Command & Control Center (CCC) out of MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. The CCC ran 24hr operations to send and receive aeromedical crews to the Port-au-Prince International Airport in Haiti to pick up patients for medical transport back to the United States.

During this two month period a total of 191 personnel, active duty, guard, and reserve, rotated in and out to participate in the relief efforts of providing vital medical care, and mission essential ground communications. Over 500 patients of critically wounded Haitians, to include children, were evacuated to a higher echelon of care. Several U.S. military members who were injured or became ill were also transported.
 
According to Newhouse the significance of being selected as lead command & control was that it gave the 45th AES personnel real world experience.  "I was amazed at the knowledge, dedication to duty, and professionalism of everyone involved. We bonded as a team with a common goal to support the Haitian population", said Newhouse.  "Beside performing their duties with a passion, the team also collected items for the Haitians such as clothes and toiletries."

Several of the challenges faced were the severity of the injuries, setting up for this mission on such short notice, getting personnel in place, finding lodging, food, medical supplies, vehicles.  Communication with ground personnel in Haiti was imperative for anticipating medical supplies, food, and water requirements.

Tech. Sgt. Jodi Wood was one of three responsible for obtaining medical supplies and equipment.  "The biggest logistics challenge was getting re-supply channels setup. We had to use off-base medical facitilites and the fire department for consumable supplies such as back boards", said Wood.  This was her first humanitarian mission.

Senior Master Sgt. Ethan Garrett is a radio operator with the 45th AES and worked the nightshift during Unified Response.  According to Garrett radio operators attached to an Air Evac unit ensure there are always communications links between geographically separated elements of the Air Evac System and to ensure the secure flow of the traffic along those links. "The traffic we pass is used for scheduling patient movement, air crew and aircraft allocation and anything that affects those items", said Garrett.  "The biggest difference I felt I made during that time was facilitating the mission of the people working in Haiti and helping to maintain their moral. In general it was a really good feeling to know that the things we would box up and send out would be helping to maintain the moral of the people in the field and that they would have it literally within 3-4 hours of the plane leaving our location", said Garrett.

Major Janice Grammick of the 45th AES was Chief Nurse during Operation Unified Response responsible for over 200 medical personnel. She flew several missions as the medical crew director.  According to Grammick some of the challenges faced were transporting small children without family members, transporting infants without formula or bottles, being able to identify patients and their medical records as many of them had the same name, and the language barrier as many Haitians did not speak English.  Grammick recounts that the successes included zero deaths while in flight and being able to fill aircraft to max capicity prior to leaving.

Major Christoper Joseph oversaw the Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility
(MASF) at Port-au-Prince International Airport in Haiti. The MASF team consisted of four nurses, seven medical technicians, one administrative technician, and one medical administrator. According to Joseph the MASF was responsible for receiving, assessing, and staging patients for medical evacuation. The holding period was 2-6 hours. The MASF operated for 24 days, completed 17 missions, and evacuated 401 people. Of those evacuated 225 were patients and 176 were medical attendants or family members escorting the patients. "Our biggest challenge was working in the austere conditions and the lanuage barrier", said Joseph. "Translators from the U.S. Navy stationed aboard the U.S.N.S. Comfort were brought in to facilitate our operations."