Angels of the desert
High over the Iraqi landscape, Corporal Cameron Jamieson talks to the passengers and crew of an Australian C-130 on a mercy mission to transport injured soldiers to hospital.

Surgeon FLTLT Shane Smith administers medication to Australian soldier PTE Calum McDonnell onboard an Australian C-130 from No. 36 Squadron.

CAPT Alane Garlisi, a US Air Force Flight Nurse from the 379th Expeditionary Aero-Medical Evacuation Squadron, watches over Australian and US soldiers in-flight.

Medical Crew Director US LTCOL Evelyn Byars administers medication to an Australian soldier.

The Hercules comes in to land at Mosul Air Base.

Australian Chaplain SQNLDR Greg McConnell comforts a US soldier.

FLTLT Shane Smith prepares pain-killers for an Australian soldier.

Photos by CPL Cameron Jamieson

The temperature has climbed to more than 55 degrees Celsius on the tarmac at Mosul, and the two US Army stretcher patients are waiting in the shadow of the Air Force Hercules’ tail before being loaded for Aero-Medical Evacuation (AME).

Their youth and pain is etched on their faces, as well as the uncertainty of what lies ahead.

A man in a flight suit strides over to the closest patient, the black Christian cross badge on his tan uniform indicating his role among the aircrew. He bends over and speaks to the 19-year-old soldier, who has her travel bear in one hand and her Jewish pendant in the other.

In a calm and soft voice, the chaplain introduces himself and asks her if she would like to share a prayer with him. She looks up as a smile spreads across her face, and soon they are engaged in prayer, which neither the heat nor threat of mortar attack can disturb.

Meanwhile, those patients who can walk move up the ramp and into the cavernous fuselage, and before long the aircraft is ready to move them to their next destination, where the US Air Force can then fly them to military hospitals in Germany.

Scenes like this are a weekly event for the Australian C-130 Hercules crews who fly Coalition AME flights across Iraq. It is a truly joint-Service flight, because in the back are nurses and medics from the US Air Force’s 379th Expeditionary Aero-Medical Evacuation Squadron to look after the predominately US patients on board.

Although it is a mercy mission, no chances are taken. Much of the flying over Iraq is done tactically, which requires the pilots to fly low and fast to avoid anti-aircraft threats.

For the onboard chaplain, Squadron Leader Greg McConnell, the AME flights are an opportunity to talk to the patients and offer a calming presence.

“Not everyone is glad to see a padre, but many are,” he says as the Hercules drones on towards Balad Air Base. “Some like to have a prayer said for them, some like to talk, and others just want to be told that everything will be alright.”

Chaplain McConnell is a Reserve officer who normally tends to his parish in Sydney.

“As a parish minister I’ve never had an experience like this, and I guess I’ll spend months processing it in my mind when I get home – what the experience has meant to me and what I’ve learnt from it,” he says. “At home I minister to a lot of sick people, but never on an airplane flying out of a conflict zone. I visit people in hospitals in Sydney, but most of them are older and are sick. These people are younger and tend to be injured and wounded.”

Further forward near the cockpit stairs stands Corporal Phillip Kirke, an airfield defence guard.

“We provide security, as sometimes we carry patients who may be distressed and want to cause harm to themselves or to others,” he says. A veteran of numerous AME flights, Corporal Kirke is in a good position to observe what goes on from a non-medical point of view.

“It can get pretty hectic back here,” he says. “There are people coming and going all the time as we deliver injured and wounded people here and there. There are people with bad injuries, and some who can walk on and off.

“It brings home what’s really happening in Iraq, and you realise there are people getting hurt – it’s not just something you see on TV. It makes you think about things more and I feel sorry for some of the people on board because you can see they’re in a bad way.

“But we’re doing good work here and it’s good to be able to help them out.”

Attending the patients being loaded onboard is Air Force Flight Surgeon Flight Lieutenant Shane Smith, who later says he’s doing the job he signed up to do.

“The stuff we do at home is more like a civilian practice, and this is very different,” he says. “The biggest problems are the summer heat and the tactical flying, which can make things difficult for the patient.

“We also don’t have the space and all the equipment that you would find in a hospital, so you have to adapt and
change the way you do things a little bit.

“Things are made easier by the Americans, as they are very good and we get on very well. We share a lot of our clinical skills and our materials, and that keeps things going smoothly.”

Flight Lieutenant Smith says one of the most important things to do on an AME mission is to talk the patients through where they will end up when they leave the aircraft.

“They get very anxious about it,” he says. “So, we do that and make them as comfortable as possible and treat their injuries as needed in-flight.”

The aircraft descends to make the approach into Balad and the aircraft commander, Squadron Leader Greg Foley-Lewis, manages the controls with the determination and skill needed to fly a sizeable cargo aircraft across the Iraqi landscape at an altitude measured in only hundreds of feet.

Once the aircraft is on the ground, he makes his way aft to help in any way he can, and only when the US personnel have been driven away does he pause to talk.

“We tend to work mostly with the Australians in the Middle East, and so these mercy flights are one of the more high-profile things we do with the Coalition,” he says.

“I think we’re making a difference by helping out with the injured and wounded. We do our best to limit the discomfort for our passengers, so we try to limit the time spent at low level. But even at altitude pressurisation can be a problem.

“On this flight we had a patient with chest pains, and the medical crew were able to fix that with oxygen. But, if necessary, we can maintain sea-level pressure to help them out.”

Later, on the return flight to the Coalition base where the Australian C-130s are based, there is time to sit and talk with some of the US Air Force crew.

Over a welcome bottle of cold water, Captain Alane Garlisi explains that for her the mission started 24 hours earlier.

“Typically, our mission will start the day before we fly,” she says. “We’ll get our itinerary and anticipated patient load, but we know that can change up until the moment we land.

“We meet up with the Australian crew in the morning for our intelligence brief and then we go out to the aircraft to load our equipment and reconfigure the aircraft for the mission.

“We then check all our emergency equipment to make sure it’s ready to go.”

Captain Garlisi says there is stiff competition among the Americans to fly on the Australian AME flights.
“We all love flying with the Australians,” she says with a laugh. “They are awesome. They’re always very friendly and they have air conditioning piped into the aircraft to make our ground preparations bearable.

“The aircrew and chaplain help us to load our equipment without being asked and we are always treated well, with coffee being offered in-flight by the flight engineers.”

The Medical Crew Director, Lieutenant Colonel Evelyn Byars, agrees that flying with the Australians is a highlight of the mission.

“The Australians work extremely hard,” she says as she takes a break from the piles of paperwork that must be completed before she can finish for the day.

“Even the pilots help load the patients onto the aircraft. It’s as if the AME becomes everybody’s mission, where the patients come before all else.

“The Australians also get the job done quickly and make sure that everybody comes back safely.”

Lieutenant Colonel Byars has been a nurse for many years and has served in numerous campaigns and emergencies, so perhaps it is fitting to allow her the last word about the mission.

“I like the way the Australians dedicate this aircraft and their time to the patients,” she explains. “They bring a lot more ‘jointness’ to the Coalition, with synchronisation and cooperation that brings everyone together as one team.

“There are no separate nations and uniforms here; we are all about the mission. That makes me proud to be here.”

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