Air Force rescue personnel deployed to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, from Pope AFB, N.C., on June 9 carried out the first-ever joint aeromedical evacuation mission with British medical teams on “non-validated casualties.” Their actions helped save the lives of three US airmen who were injured in the crash of an HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopter earlier that day in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. That same crash claimed the lives of four other USAF rescue personnel. Non-validated means a patient whose transport has not yet been approved via the normal procedures. By bypassing the normal steps, the joint team was able to act much more quickly, They were dispatched on an Air Force HC-130P aircraft to retrieve two of the three injured airmen. The rescuers delivered life-saving and condition stabilizing care aboard the aircraft. A second mission evacuated the third airman. (June 28 Pope report by 1st Lt. Cammie Quinn)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.