Once Again Michael Yon Commits Journalism

[Waitone]

http://bigpeace.com/myon/2011/10/24/army-medevac-policy-must-change-to-stop-unnecessary-casualties-in-afghanistan/#more-172540

Yon's premise is Army policy WRT to medivac leads to unnecessary US combat deaths.  He points out how Army policy is an runs contrary to that of Marine, Air Force, and Navy.

I'd thought the Army had learned lessons from Vietnam about how deadly bureaucratic BS can be to the grunts.  If Yon is correct lessons were evidently not learned.

Makes me want to skin someone.

[roo_ster]

MY is not always right, but the USMC and USAF and Brits have shown the way.

[wmenorr67]

He is correct but yet he is wrong.  Just a couple of instances.  I have seen MEDEVAC choppers with red crosses and armed with 240B's.

Also with the 9 line the first 5 lines are all that is needed to launch a bird.  Those lines inlclude who is calling, how to get ahold of them, where they are and how many wounded and types of wounds there are.

Those are to be transmitted in 20 seconds or less.  Not hard to do in combat if you have all the information ready to go.  And not unreasonable.

Anyone else on here that is current Army or other service can weigh in but once again you have a journalist writing for the sake of causing a problem that doesn't exist.

[Twycross]

Also with the 9 line the first 5 lines are all that is needed to launch a bird.  Those lines inlclude who is calling, how to get ahold of them, where they are and how many wounded and types of wounds there are.

Those are to be transmitted in 20 seconds or less.  Not hard to do in combat if you have all the information ready to go.  And not unreasonable.

Agreed. The "paperwork" issue far overblown, and the analogy about fire departments is completely erroneous. The first five lines of a medevac are not obscure factoids that armchair commandos somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon cooked up to look useful, they are the basic points necessary to tell the bird where it needs to go, how to establish contact with the people who need evac, and what they need. And it's not some complex sheaf of paperwork, either. If it takes a long time to get it out, it should never be because people don't know how to do it, or can't call it in quickly (in the absence of communication issues).

For the rest of it, I'm all in favor of mounting weapons and ditching the red crosses, but it's not the magic bullet that he is making it out to be, nor can it really (imho) replace gunship support. An LZ too hot for an unarmed chopper to land is not going to magically clear up for a chopper with two 7.62's on it.

[kgbsquirrel]

He is correct but yet he is wrong.  Just a couple of instances.  I have seen MEDEVAC choppers with red crosses and armed with 240B's.

Also with the 9 line the first 5 lines are all that is needed to launch a bird.  Those lines inlclude who is calling, how to get ahold of them, where they are and how many wounded and types of wounds there are.

Those are to be transmitted in 20 seconds or less.  Not hard to do in combat if you have all the information ready to go.  And not unreasonable.

Anyone else on here that is current Army or other service can weigh in but once again you have a journalist writing for the sake of causing a problem that doesn't exist.

WRT the 9-lines. I could never remember them, but that was a rather moot point because we were all given laminated copies which we stuffed into the camo covers on our helmets. It was a simple matter of just reaching up, yanking out the cheat-sheet, and then just reciting into the radio what was written with a couple basic pieces of information tossed in (some of which could be grease penciled onto the cheat-sheet ahead of time too). So simple even a bunch of desk-jockey squids could do it. 

[wmenorr67]

WRT the 9-lines. I could never remember them, but that was a rather moot point because we were all given laminated copies which we stuffed into the camo covers on our helmets. It was a simple matter of just reaching up, yanking out the cheat-sheet, and then just reciting into the radio what was written with a couple basic pieces of information tossed in (some of which could be grease penciled onto the cheat-sheet ahead of time too). So simple even a bunch of desk-jockey squids could do it. 

Still do it that way my friend.

[dogmush]

WRT the 9-lines. I could never remember them, but that was a rather moot point because we were all given laminated copies which we stuffed into the camo covers on our helmets. It was a simple matter of just reaching up, yanking out the cheat-sheet, and then just reciting into the radio what was written with a couple basic pieces of information tossed in (some of which could be grease penciled onto the cheat-sheet ahead of time too). So simple even a bunch of desk-jockey squids could do it. 

Yep.  We also tape them to the dashboard of vehicles.