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Tanker Airlift Control Center focusing on Katrina aeromedical evacuations

  • Published
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --   If we can get three more planes in by nightfall today, we might be able to save another 100 people, said Col. Jeff Franklin, a Tanker Airlift Control Center controller here, whose team of experts are working 24-hour operations to move aircraft into New Orleans International Airport where critically injured patients await evacuation.

With an excess of 300 patients, 43 of whom are critical, waiting for aeromedical transport from NOIA to hospitals around the country, TACC controllers focus has changed from tasking missions supporting search and rescue to primarily aeromedical evacuation.

During the first 24 hours, we worked aggressively to move search and rescue teams and their equipment to Louisiana. Now, were making plans for a hub and spoke-type operation to bring supplies in and take patients out, said the colonel.

TACC currently has 15 to 20 missions in various stages of planning, with some designated to bring in Massive Mobil Air Staging Facilities from Kelly, in San Antonio, Texas, and Pope Air Force Base, N.C., to the New Orleans airport. The staging facility will be used to enhance medical operations already set up at the airport.

Right now were chasing the sun because the New Orleans airport isnt able to support night operations, said Colonel Franklin. In order to move the airport into a 24-hour location, the biggest challenge we must overcome is the infrastructure, specifically runway lights. Some of the cargo were moving in will help.

That help is coming in the form of a special tactics team from Pope AFB, who will set up expeditionary airfield lighting.

Once we get the airport running full up, well work around the clock to move those patients.

Working around the clock is something controllers are used to at the TACC. But with an operation of this magnitude placed on top of operations already supporting missions around the world, including those in Southeast Asia, center leadership decided to increase its personnel by 10-15 percent. In addition, TACC officials have called on assets in the continental U.S., rather than tasking assets supporting other missions.

We adjusted by adding personnel to the 24-hour operation. Those individuals have the skills to work specifically the hurricane taskings, he said. We did the same for the three hurricanes last year.

But to Colonel Franklin and his teammates, Hurricane Katrina is different than anything theyve dealt with in the past.

Katrina is different because of the desperation were seeing in peoples faces, he said. That desperation has created a larger sense of urgency for us.

According to AMC officials, patients from New Orleans will be flown to hospitals in Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta. But, flexibility in moving patients to cities around the country is key to getting them where theyll get the treatment they need.

We could end up transporting a patient to Dallas, for instance, and (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) might say, We need you to take that patient to this city, said Colonel Franklin. The TACC team on the floor is staying agile as FEMA directs.

As of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, aeromedical evacuation aircraft have transported 120 patients, with a large number of patients loaded into the system awaiting future transport.

Air Mobility Command News Service is a service of the Internal Division
Office of Public Affairs
503 Ward Drive, Room 214
Scott Air Force Base, Illinois 62225-5335
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