Teamwork and Total Force

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- I recently had the opportunity to attend the State of the Military Healthcare System 2008 Annual Conference in Washington DC hosted by Dr Casscells, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.

It was a week-long event full of vision and focus on where the military healthcare system has been and where it is headed in the future. It was attended by more than 3,000 Active, Reserve, and Guard Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, civilian and contractor health care professionals.

There was one particular presentation that stood out from all the others that focused on teamwork and total force.

The presentation was given by Lt. Gen. James Roudebush, Air Force Surgeon General. I might have been biased as an Air Force medic as well as the fact I saw first-hand the impact of war while deployed this time last year as the J-4 at the Task Force Med Joint Combat Theater Hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan.

However, I truly believe the impact of his presentation reached everyone in the very diverse audience as much as it did me.

General Roudebush highlighted how we have a joint interoperable military heath care system taking care of the men and women who are out there in harms way.

Individually each service is superb but collectively we are unstoppable. We leverage each others capabilities and that is the strength of our service.

He brought everyone's attention back to "why we serve" and the success of our total force team while fighting the global war on terrorism. The story he presented could happen at any of our deployed locations...and does on a daily basis.

And this is the story...

It was July 3 in Iraq. Army Sgt. Dan Powers was on duty in Baghdad when his team was ambushed. He was up against an insurgent and was stabbed in the head with a knife which lodged in his brain.

Sergeant Power's number one priority was to take down and neutralize the insurgent, which he did. His team member's priority was to take care of Sergeant Powers. They immediately conducted first aide on site.

His team members' training and decisions were spot on. They knew not to pull out the knife which was sticking out of Sergeant Power's head.

His team used a Humvee to transit him to the 28th Combat Support Army Hospital in the International Zone. Believe it or not, during this ride Sergeant Powers called home to his family to let them know he was ok. He was then quickly air evacuated by Marines with Army medics to the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad.

There he was greeted by a multidisciplinary joint team of Army and Air Force enlisted and officer medics. Sergeant Power's life was now in the care of the best trauma center in a tent or even in a hardened facility for that matter.

He was assessed and immediately moved to the operating room. Once in surgery, the team pulled out the knife but there was excessive bleeding.

Through the technology available in theater, images were sent via telemedicine to the Bethesda Naval Hospital Neurosurgery Department. The Bethesda Surgeon quickly assessed the need to get Sergeant Powers to Bethesda for immediate care.

Meanwhile, the Air Force medics began to package and ready the patient for transport. A C-17 from Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., was tapped out of Qatar and while enroute to Balad, the C-17 was transformed into a flying Intensive Care Unit.

Crew members of the C-17 were Guardsmen. The nurse from the critical care transport team was a Reservist. You can see the Total Force Team coming together.

Diplomatic clearance was worked, weather was assessed and routing determined. And so began a 13-hour flight to Bethesda Naval Hospital. The plane flew non-stop to the United States. "Care in the Air at its Finest."

The normal mission route for patients is to stop at Lundsthul, Germany, prior to heading to a CONUS facility. The mission to transport Sergeant Powers required an over fly of Lundsthul and refueling with a team out of Mildenhall Air Base, England.

The C17 was refueled by the KC-10 crew over the Atlantic.

The plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base and was met by the Air Staging Facility Team, quickly transferred to Bethesda Naval Hospital and rushed to the operating room on July 4.

From ambush in Baghdad to Neurosurgery in D.C., in less the 24 hours, Sergeant Dan Power's life was saved.

The Total Force Team did what they do best and conducted their jobs professionally. What was particularly poignant about General Roudebush's presentation was the introduction of individuals who touched Sergeant Power's life, and saved it, during that 24 hour period last summer.

Lined up across the stage was the field medic, members of the head and neck team from Balad, the C-17 crewmember, the CCAT nurse, ASF members and the Bethesda neurosurgeon.

The last person introduced to the audience of 3,000 was Sergeant Powers, wounded warrior and survivor.

What a powerful demonstration of our Air Force and Total Force mission accomplishment. The pride felt not only by the team that saved Sergeant Power's life but all the members in that audience is a feeling not to be replaced easily in years to come.

The reason for "Why We Serve" was reinforced in a short 15-minute presentation.