|
|
Top
Stories
|
ACTS
OF MERCY
|
|
|
Above:
Leading Aircraftman Michael Gunn, Flight Lieutenant Sally
Scott and Squadron Leader Greg Wilson on the tarmac at RAAF
Base Darwin after returning from duties with Operation Bali
Assist.
|
 |
|
Wing
Commander Greg Hampson talks to the media at RAAF Base Darwin.
Photo by CPL Ashley Roach, 1JPAU(P)
|
| |
|
AT
A GLANCE
|
Five
C130s were involved in Operation Bali Assist (three
C130Js, two C130H).
The New Zealand Air Force also assisted with one C130,
two crews, an Aero-Medical Evacuation team and Critical
Incident Stress Debriefing teams.
ADF specialisations involved included flight crews,
health staff, Security Police, Security Police Dog Handlers,
Military Working Dogs and Airfield Defence Guards.
C130Js are configured to carry 97 stretchers (or litters)
for transfer of patients in a medical emergency.
Litters were arranged along each wall of the aircraft
with two lines down the centre and four from floor to
ceiling.
Aircraft flew at sea level cabin altitude (under 18,000
ft) so there were no changes in pressure to affect eardrums,
gaping wounds or other injuries.
Cabin temperature had to be kept at an acceptable level
for patient comfort.
Quick turnaround was achieved from all aircraft and
personnel involved.
Expediency was the main consideration in getting patients
back to Australia.
No. 3 Combat Support Hospital RAAF Base Richmond is
fully prepared for emergency situations such as this
with medical fly-away kits ready to be loaded on to
aircraft at a moments notice.
Apart from its usual role in providing air terminal
services for aircraft cargo and passengers in and out
of RAAF Base Richmond, No. 1 Air Terminal Squadron deployed
detachments to RAAF Base Darwin, Townsville, Amberley,
Pearce, Tindal and Williamtown during OP Bali Assist.
No.1ATS acted as the link between No. 3HOSP and the
emergency situation.
No. 114 Mobile Control Reporting Unit provided air defence
support.
Two ambulances deployed from No. 321 Health Services
Flight, and medical staff and a Medical Liaison Officer
were on standby. |
|
WHEN
Squadron Leader Greg Wilson switched on his television on the morning
of Sunday, October 13, and saw the images of the destruction in
Bali, he knew it would only be a matter of time before he was called
into work.
Twenty minutes later the phone rang and SQNLDR Wilson, a Senior
Medical Officer at RAAF Base Darwin, was on his way to the base.
By lunchtime he and rest of the base's medical staff assembled at
Darwin had learnt that a C-130 Hercules with an Aero-Medical Evacuation
team was on its way from RAAF Base Richmond.
After a briefing on the situation on the Indonesian island and a
quick run-down on security procedures, SQNLDR Wilson and Nursing
Officer Flight Lieutenant Sally Scott prepared to board the first
of the Bali-bound C-130s to complement the team of seven already
on board.
One of those, Leading Aircraftman Michael Gunn, a Medical Assistant
with No. 3 Combat Support Hospital at Richmond, had been up since
7am preparing the unit’s medical equipment and loading it on
to the Hercules.
Hours
later the trio was part of the first team of Air Force personnel
on the ground in Bali after the bombing, and the scenes they were
confronted with were like nothing they had seen before.
While LAC Gunn waited with the Hercules at the airport, SQNLDR
Wilson and FLTLT Scott’s first task was to head to the local
hospital to assess the wounded and decide which of the victims
needed to be on the next aircraft back to Darwin Hospital.
“The hospital was overwhelmed by the size and severity of
the casualties,” SQNLDR Wilson said.
“I'd never seen anything like it before. The closest similar
experience I’d had was attending the aftermath of a tidal
wave in Papua New Guinea a few years ago,” he said.
“We do mass casualty training, where we’re equipped
with the skills to deal with a disaster, but you never think you're
going to use them.”
The situation was certainly something FLTLT Scott had never experienced.
“When you’re the first team in and the first to see
the hospital, you almost feel helpless with so many injured people
and not enough staff to help,” she said. “Everyone did
the best they could.”
Eleven people were flown back to Darwin on the first C-130 flight
out of Bali. All up, the Aero- Medical Teams ferried 66 victims
back to Australia over the course of three days.
LAC Gunn said he slept for about one-and-a-half hours in the first
24 hours, and by the time he was back in Darwin, had slept for
six hours in three days.
“You're working on adrenalin for most of the time. It’s
only when you sit down and rest that you have time to reflect
on the job you’ve done. Our training is for that sort of
environment, but you don’t expect to have to do it for real.”
Commanding Officer of No. 1 Air Transportable Health Squadron
at RAAF Base Amberley Wing Commander Greg Hampson, the Aero-Medical
Evacuation Team Leader, congratulated the personnel who flew to
Bali on a job well done.
“Everybody performed outstandingly well from a team point
of view, with those teams being Permanent Air Force members and
Reserves,” he said.
|
|
|
.
|
|
