From Touchdown to Healing Touch

In a two-day trial held at Travis AFB, Calif., members of the 615th Contingency Response Wing and 60th Medical Group demonstrated the value of the Air Force’s Expeditionary Medical Support Health Response Team concept currently under development. Within three hours of arriving at the mock disaster scene, these airmen were treating patients. Just 10 hours later, they had a newly erected medical facility running. The 38-member team, with its palletized hospital, is transportable in two C-17s and “designed to be mobile but fully functional,” with disaster-response capability on par with a fixed hospital, said Col. Scott Russi, team commander during the demo. Though a “little tweaking” remains to optimize the team’s equipment, the concept potentially adds “great capability to the Air Force medical service,” said Col. Elmo Robison, Air Combat Command’s expeditionary medical ops chief. (Travis release)