AMC achieves new landmark

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Robert Maki
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Natural disasters call for fast action, and just 16 hours after being notified of the threat of hurricane Gustav, a Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility team from the 6th Medical Group, MacDill Air Force Base, was operational and on the ground in Beaumont, Texas, supporting the evacuation Aug. 30. 

It was a landmark moment for Air Mobility Command. The MASF program has been an Aerovac mission for the past 10 years. This was the first real-world operation for the MASF mission after the change of responsibility to the surgeon general last October. 

MASF teams are swift, light and rapid response teams capable of deploying anywhere around the world. The teams support everything from the area of responsibility to humanitarian missions. They go to forward deployed locations to coordinate, manage and transport medical patients to points of definitive care. 

"Our main mission is to move patients from an area of threat to a safer location," said Tech. Sgt. Ryan Wheatley, Aerospace Medical Service craftsman. "Getting individuals into a patient tracking system and getting them to the care they need is what we are trained to do." 

The 13-member team from MacDill helped evacuate more than 150 patients to Kelly AFB. Most patients were from nursing homes and extended care facilities around Beaumont and surrounding communities. 

"All team members are handpicked," said Lt. Col. Elizabeth Coddington, MacDill MASF team commander. "It is a very physically demanding job and all members need to be fully qualified to handle any situation." 

On Aug. 31, the team fell back to Altus AFB to reposition their assets and prepare to redeploy to the areas hit hardest by hurricane Gustav. 

Although there are 10 MASF's in the AMC, MacDill and Scott are the only bases to have two fully trained and operational MASF teams. The 13-member team consists of four nurses, one Medical Service Corps, one administrative clerk and seven medical technicians. They deploy with two loaded HUMVEEs which hold more than $35,000 in supplies.