Two pilots flying their last combat mission in Ramadi, Iraq, risked their lives in an unorthodox medical evacuation of a critically wounded soldier in June. CW4 Kevin Purtee and CW2 Allen Crist—both from Company B, 1st Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment (Attack), 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, based at Logistics Support Area (LSA) Anaconda—rescued Spc. Jeffrey Jamaleldine, from Company A, 1st Battalion, 77th Armor, and delivered him for medical care.

Purtee and copilot/gunner Crist were part of a team of four Apache helicopters that flew to Ramadi to support Coalition forces searching for insurgents and weapons caches. The troops were pinned down by heavy gunfire, and the AH-64 Apache crew provided air fire support. Jamaleldine was shot in the jaw and arm during the firefight.

When the helicopter crew returned to the scene about 40 minutes after refueling and rearming, a medevac helicopter had not arrived to evacuate him. Purtee and Crist decided to land despite heavy small arms fire in the area. Crist jumped out, strapped Jamaleldine into the cockpit, harnessed himself to the steps of the aircraft, and crouched on the wing for the approximately 10-minute flight to the medical pad.

Crist and Purtee were flying their last combat mission, and they immediately returned to cover the troops still fighting.

LSA Anaconda and Balad Air Base, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, are colocated on the largest Coalition forward operating base in Iraq. Balad is one of the busiest air bases in the world.

LSA Anaconda is the major supply hub of all military operations in Iraq. It is one of four strategic hubs in Iraq that became a contingency operating base in 2005.

Air support, surveillance and reconnaissance have contributed to a lowering of the U.S. death toll in Iraq.


TRAINING SALVADORANS FOR IRAQ
Joint Task Force Bravo sent a 26-member team to El Salvador to conduct weeklong training for Salvadoran soldiers deploying to Iraq. Lt. Col. Greg Jicha, commander of Army forces at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, was the task force commander. El Salvador is the only country in Central America that provides personnel to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Upon deployment the Salvadoran troops will use U.S. military equipment. Thus their training was educational in a number of ways. Drivers had never operated a Humvee, medics were unacquainted with some of the latest medical technology and radio operators had never seen the equipment they would be using. The U.S. Army team taught them about convoy and perimeter security, communications, and civilian and military cooperation. The soldiers also received combat lifesaver training and learned how to drive American military vehicles.

To test their new skills, a simulated convoy attack at the end of the week concluded their training. In that exercise, a convoy of a Humvee and a 5-ton truck were hit with a simulated improvised explosive device. The security troops neutralized the enemy, while medical personnel treated wounded soldiers in the back of the truck. When the area was secure, the drivers rushed the wounded to a triage center where medical students evaluated each patient, completed the necessary treatment and prepared the wounded for evacuation.

Throughout the exercise, radio operators radioed coordinates to a simulated helicopter to provide medical evacuation. SSgt. Edgardo Alvarez performed the crucial job of translating between the two groups. One measure of the operation’s success was that soldiers of both countries agreed they learned a great deal from each other.


IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN ROTATIONS
The DoD has announced that the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Fort Hood, Texas, will deploy to Iraq beginning at the end of this year and continuing into 2008. The deployment is not associated with the current troop surge, but rather is part of a normal rotation of forces to replace soldiers currently in Iraq. The 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New York Army National Guard, will deploy to Afghanistan to train Afghan National Security Forces beginning in late 2007, with the majority of the 1,700 servicemembers deploying in mid-2008.


DOD AMENDS R&R POLICY
The Department of Defense has increased R&R leave from 15 to 18 days for servicemembers currently on 15-month deployments in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. The policy, effective July 13, is not retroactive and applies only to military personnel. Travel time is not charged; leave begins when the servicemember arrives at the commercial airport closest to the leave destination. Troops serving one-year tours will continue to receive 15 days of R&R leave.


MLRS UNITARY COMBAT WORTHY
The expanding application of the guided multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) unitary in Iraq is changing the way the U.S. military thinks about using rockets in close support missions. That was the principal message from a recent program update provided by senior program participants from both Army user and development communities.

“Guided MLRS is truly a transformational product in that it gives the maneuver commander a lot more responsive and effective options,” said Col. David Rice, Project Manager, Precision Fires Rocket & Missile Systems, under the Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

According to Rice, as of the beginning of August, 273 guided MLRS rockets had been fired; approximately 83 percent of those were in an urban environment, and 69 percent of those missions were with troops in contact.

“MLRS and precision fires products typically operate in a 30 km- to 150-km-and-beyond range, and we engage targets in that range. Of course, the farther you go out the more error you induce. Thus we need more precision, particularly as we get into the urban environment, and especially when we have troops in contact. The guided MLRS uses GPS location and guides itself onto the target. It has thrusters in the back, and the fins guide it with pretty good precision. I think we’re getting [within] one meter, if not right on the target.”

Several of the briefers noted the popular designation for the weapon as “the 70 km sniper rifle.” According to Leighton Duitsman, a representative from the Training and Doctrine Command Capability Manager for Rocket and Missile Systems at Fort Sill, Okla., “[Guided MLRS unitary] is primarily being used in what we call complex and urban terrain. Many of the targets have been in built-up areas where it has shown its ability to precisely hit targets, regardless of how close they are to other buildings. That’s where we get the ‘sniper’ designation.”

The guided MLRS unitary program is currently finishing up low-rate production and is scheduled to go into full-rate production around the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2009, with full-rate production running through FY 2012.


DOLE-SHALALA REPORT
The Dole-Shalala commission report on military health care urges broad and rapid changes to improve care for U.S. soldiers and veterans.

The 29-page report of the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, chaired by former Sen. Robert Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, calls for an overhaul of military health care and the veterans disability system guided by six recommendations that entail 35 immediate action steps. Several of the action items require congressional legislation.

Although the report notes that many of the problems in the military health-care and veterans disability systems also exist in the nation’s health-care delivery system, it calls for improvement in continuity and integration of medical and rehabilitation programming across DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and emphasizes that fundamental changes in care management and the disability system are necessary.

To provide more personalized care, the report recommends that DoD and the VA develop a patient-centered recovery plan for each seriously injured servicemember and establish a cadre of recovery coordinators to administer the plans and be the contact for patients and families. The impetus for the report was the exposure of poor living conditions, bureaucratic hold-ups and neglect at the outpatient clinic of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., last spring. One in five injured servicemembers goes to Walter Reed for treatment, and until it closes in 2011, the report notes, the hospital must have the resources necessary to provide and maintain excellence in outpatient and inpatient care.

The report also recommended:

• Creating one standardized medical examination that DoD administers to determine fitness to serve and that the VA uses to determine initial disability level.

• Restructuring VA disability payments to include transition payments, then earnings-loss payments, and a quality-of-life payment.

• Reevaluating disability status every three years.

• Reducing the stigma of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and enabling all veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and need care for it to get treatment from the VA.

• Establishing a network of public- and private-sector expertise in traumatic brain injury and an expanded network for PTSD.

• Making combat-injured servicemembers eligible for TRICARE respite care and aide and personal attendant benefits currently provided in the extended care health option program.

• Amending the Family and Medical Leave Act for up to six months for a family member of a veteran who has a combat-related injury and meets the law’s eligibility requirements.

• Making clinical and benefit data more accessible to users within the next 12 months and creating a user-friendly web site for medical records.

The entire report is available at www.pccww.gov.