Medical history

An aeromedical team evacuates a victim of the Bali Blasts.

THE Australian Defence Force's Aeromedical Evacuation (AME) team proved during Op Bali that it possessed the skills and training to successfully cope with a crisis, rightfully earning plaudits from within and outside military circles.

There have been times when AME teams have been called on to move greater numbers of patients, but never before have they moved so many seriously injured people in such a short space of time.

The Bali bombing, of course, was not the first disaster the AME teams have been called to, with Cyclone Tracy, the Vietnam War and other war and peacetime events demanding their specialised services.

Medical evacuation teams were formed in Australia during World War 2 when the need to transport the sick and wounded by air became too great to ignore.

Australian military services first recognised the need in the 1930s, but a lack of resources at the time prevented the development of such a capability.

A Wapiti aircraft was modified to take a stretcher and undertook a successful experimental flight but the concept was not progressed because of lack of funds and aircraft. The outbreak of war in 1939 provided the incentive.
Air ambulances were used by Australia from February 1941 to transport the sick and wounded from the forward areas to medical treatment or to hospitals.

No. 1 Air Ambulance Unit had extensive service in the Middle East Campaigns from 1941 while No. 2 Air Ambulance Unit was established for duties within Australia in March 1942.

The New Guinea campaigns of 1942, which resulted in numerous sick and wounded, caught the Australians and Americans under-prepared as there was no organisation of medical personnel available to care for patients in-flight, and no medical kits or oxygen were carried for patients when flying between 12,000-15,000 feet.

A United States unit - the 804th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron (MAES) - arrived in the Pacific theatre in September 1943.

Soon after, Australian Air Force medical officer Squadron Leader Winston Kiel and 12 orderlies were attached to the 804th MAES to work with the Americans. The Air Force then formed its own medical evacuation transport unit.

Sisters (now nursing officers) and orderlies volunteered and undertook three weeks of training at the Medical Training Unit in Victoria in April 1944. They were then posted to the newly formed No. 1 Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit (MAETU).

By October 1944, 1MAETU was responsible for all air evacuations out of New Guinea as the Americans moved to the Philippines.

The unit expanded to cope with demand and in May 1945 was split to form 1 and 2MAETUs. 1MAETU remained at Lae and 2MAETU moved to Morotai.

The teams consisted of three medical officers, 24 sisters and 24 orderlies. In September 1945, staff from No 2 MAETU undertook the evacuation of prisoners-of-war from South-East Asia to Singapore and then back to either Darwin or Townsville. About 8000 patients were evacuated from Singapore.

During WW2, two aircraft carrying sick and wounded plus a sister and an orderly each were lost in aircraft accidents. By November 1945, 2MAETU was disbanded and a nucleus of 1MAETU transferred to 40 Operational Base Unit in February 1946.

The efforts of the medical officers, sisters and orderlies during WW2 laid a solid foundation in the Air Force for successful air evacuation of sick and wounded under adverse conditions.

• By WGCDR Maxine Dahl
  Information for this article was taken from records held by the RAAF Historical Section.

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