LESSON 7
AIR EVACUATION AND MEDICAL REGULATING
Section I. GENERAL
7-1.
INTRODUCTION
a. A soldier fighting in the forward area is wounded. An aidman with the
soldier's company gives emergency medical care and prepares the patient for
evacuation to the battalion aid station. A frontline ambulance of the battalion medical
platoon's evacuation section moves the patient from the company area to the aid
station. Here the patient is examined and given further necessary emergency
treatment. If his wound is minor, he is not evacuated farther to the rear but is returned
to duty from the aid station. If further evacuation is necessary, the patient is normally
evacuated from the battalion aid station to the division treatment station in a division
field ambulance.
b. If the patient's wound is serious say an abdominal wound it is probable that
he will be evacuated from the aid station by US Army air ambulance, either to the
division treatment station or to the CSH supporting the division.
c. The patient with the abdominal wound would require more definitive
treatment, so he would be evacuated from the CSH to an EVAC hospital. Patients
leaving division treatment stations also are taken to EVAC hospitals. This evacuation to
the EVAC hospital is usually done in corps field ambulances or US Army air
ambulances. The ambulance company, the air ambulance company, the CSH and the
EVAC hospital are corps level health service support units of the COSCOM medical
brigade (or group) providing support to the divisions and other forces in the corps area.
d. Patients requiring evacuation from EVAC hospitals to general hospitals in the
COMMZ may be moved by ground ambulance (field type or bus) or by aircraft of the
USAF-normally the latter. Finally, those patients to be evacuated to the ZI are moved
from the COMMZ in USAF aircraft or, during wartime, by ships of the Military Sealift
Command (MSC), operated by the US Navy (USN).
7-2.
BACKGROUND
a. Movement of patients by air has been a matter of study by medical men and
military men for many years. The idea was advanced and tested by the French in
WW I, but nothing came of it then. During the Spanish Civil War many wounded
German soldiers were flown to German hospitals from Spain. Air movement of patients
during WW II gained greater acceptance and was quite widely used in the Pacific
theater and in North Africa. Because of the accomplishments of air evacuation of
patients during WWII, the full value of aircraft as a means of patient transport was
recognized and accepted at all echelons of command. In September 1949, the
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7-2