Understanding aeromedical team's critical medical mission

  • Published
  • By Tech Sgt. Eddie A. Colon
  • 514th Aeromedical Staging Squadron
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST --  Imagine yourself in a crowded hospital room. The air is filled with the sound of alarms and staff members shouting orders. Doctors and nurses are tending to severely injured patients at their bedside as a respiratory therapist is caring for a ventilated patient. No, this isn't an emergency department in New York City on a busy Saturday night, but rather the back of a C-130 en route from any location in the world. This is the back of an aircraft converted from a dark, dingy cargo bay into an intensive care medical unit. This medical team taking care of your loved ones can be known as a Critical Care Air Transport Team, or CCATT.

CCATT is a three-person, highly specialized medical asset that can create and operate a portable intensive care unit on board any transport aircraft during flight. Each team is capable of transporting three ventilated or up to six non-ventilated patients. It is a limited, rapidly deployable resource and a primary component of the Air Force's aeromedical evacuation, or AE, system. CCATT allows AE to transport stabilized, critically-ill patients who would not typically be able to receive a higher echelon of care without the constant medical attention and services of a critical care team.

The CCATT unit type code is comprised of a critical care doctor, critical care nurse and a respiratory therapist. Each member functions as an independent practitioner but together serve one common goal - provide all patients with the highest level of care possible. Our goal is to ensure that patients are transported and received at the next point of care facility in better condition than they were found. The training pipeline is intense and prerequisites are aplenty, but the end reward of being able to give a comrade a stronger fighting chance and playing a part in getting a fallen hero home is a reward in itself.

The 514th Air Mobility Wing proudly supports this wartime mission by sustaining two fully qualified CCATT teams which are assigned to the 514th Aeromedical Staging Squadron. While stateside and in garrison, teams remain assigned to aeromedical staging units. Whether training in-flight or fulfilling real world missions, teams are attached to the 514th ASTS. Without the assistance of AE, CCATT is unable to complete its mission.

The Freedom Wing's CCATT is a diverse group comprised of citizen Airmen who work in some of the tri-state area's most recognized level one trauma centers. During unit training assembly's, you can find all members assigned to the section nose deep in clinical practice guidelines and undergoing didactic review, written test and performing practical patient simulations based on previous missions from the area of responsibility. The training is high yield and intense with its goal of challenging the members both mentally and physically. The clinical skills, experience and knowledge obtained through civilian employment and UTA's enhance the team's ability to perform its primary mission of returning our wounded heroes in uniform home.