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USTRANSCOM Commander thanks 711th Human Performance Wing efforts to safely transport infectious patients around the world

U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, commander, U.S. Transportation Command, (center left) discusses aeromedical evacuation efforts and infectious disease training with members of the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in the belly of the schoolhouse’s C-17 trainer during his visit to the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing 0ct. 30, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Richard Eldridge)

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. – The head of U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) made a personal visit, October 30 to the U.S. Air Force unit responsible for transporting infectious patients safely during a pandemic in order to recognize the role its team effort has in protecting service members throughout the globe.


U.S. Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, commander, USTRANSCOM, visited the U.S. Air Force 711th Human Performance Wing (711 HPW) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to thank the Aeromedical Evacuation (AE) community for its efforts to develop a capability to safely transport patients with transmittable diseases or viruses. Part of the mission of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM), located at Wright-Patterson, is to train these AE Airmen to move infectious patients around the world.


“The Air Force 711th Human Performance Wing is just outstanding, it is inspiring to know how many great warriors are alive today that would not be if it hadn’t been for the work of the 711th,” said Lyons.


Serving as the Department of Defense (DOD)’s single manager for global patient movement, one of its five Unified Command Plan responsibilities, USTRANSCOM executes this critical mission through the U.S. Air Force’s AE system, which provides safe, secure, and sound in-flight health care to the ill and injured transiting the skies.


“We needed to figure out quickly how we were going to move highly infectious patients because at the time the coronavirus outbreak occurred, the Department did not have a highly infectious patient movement capability,” said Lyons.


The 711 HPW team of medical professionals, scientists, and engineers stepped in to help with a new bridging strategy.


“The first thing they did was they dusted off the Transportation Isolation System from the Ebola crisis,” said Lyons.


Repurposing a Transportation Isolation System (TIS) that was developed in 2014 to respond to the Ebola crisis, the 711 HPW started with the TIS and advanced its capacity with the fielding of the Negatively Pressurized CONEX (NPC). CONEX is military terminology for container express.


The NPC is a 40-foot metal shipping container retrofitted with air-handling capabilities as well as other medical equipment for carrying patients aboard a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. The NPC’s first operational mission was June 30, 2020, from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, 95 days after USTRANSCOM published a Joint Urgent Operational Need (JUON) statement for transporting large numbers of COVID-19-specific patients.


“Since March, we have moved 290 patients in isolation conditions with over 50 percent within a Negatively Pressurized CONEX,” said Lyons. “This is a great example of the impact the 711th Human Performance Wing has on global operational success.”


“Global patient movement and warfighting readiness go hand in hand,” said U.S. Air Force Col. John Andrus, USTRANSCOM surgeon general. “Our aeromedical evacuation professionals comprehensively assist more than 500 patients with various levels of medical care per month.”


Andrus accompanied Lyons on the trip and noted, “Similar to a symphony orchestra that consists of numerous musicians playing in harmony to generate incredible sounds, the global patient movement process also features many moving parts, which come together in unity to enable and ensure superior in-transit medical support to America’s warfighters.”


The 711 HPW has two mission units that contribute to the symphony Andrus alluded to: Airman Systems Directorate and USAFSAM. Both units ensure those transporting Airmen infected by COVID-19 are trained in infectious disease AE and test the equipment inside the NPCs and aircraft to ensure they are safe for the missions.


“We have been very much involved from the beginning, working very closely with AMC [Air Mobility Command] to figure out what can we do to ensure the safe transport of highly infectious disease-type patients,” said Col. Alan Guhlke, USAFSAM’s En Route Care Training Department chair. Guhlke oversees the Flight Nurse and AE Technician training as well as Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) training offered through USAFSAM and the Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (C-STARS) Cincinnati location, which primarily focuses on CCATT member validation.


USAFSAM and its C-STARS Omaha cadre, who are infectious disease experts, developed a new training course called Infectious Disease Air Transport. The formalized training course, requested by AMC, provides AE crews and their support personnel a general overview of different infectious disease threats, emphasizing the most likely encountered conditions, and how to transport them safely with the most up-to-date isolation capabilities.


“Right now our training is really COVID specific,” said Guhlke. “A year from now, we could be back to Ebola -- who knows? But it’s going to allow us to enhance our aeromedical transport capabilities, so everybody who is an Aeromedical Evacuation System team member will be trained and better prepared to handle the next threat.”


The Airman Systems Directorate on the research side performed seat and decontamination testing to ensure the health and well-being of Airmen inside the NPC units, as well as the inside of the AE aircraft.


“It was really cool to see this process unfold,” said Casey Pirnstill, 711 HPW biomedical engineer.  “We were brought on early in the design of the seats that were going to be in the NPC to determine if there were any additions over a regular C-17, given the side-facing troop seats were qualified before a lot of our modern airworthiness processes existed.”


Lyons thanked the Airman Systems Directorate team and handed out a commander’s coin to six individuals within the two units to express appreciation for their efforts to the DOD mission.


“The ability to move infectious patients in this advanced non-pressurized container is very impressive and I can tell you from USTRANSCOM commander perspective, I am just a big fan of the 711th.”


In a time where much of the world dealt with setbacks to operations during a pandemic, the 711 HPW showcased a vital DOD mission – protecting its people.


“I know a lot of people worked a lot of extra hours, in the labs and even traveling to Omaha and some other places, Little Rock, etc.,” said Darrin Ott, 711 HPW, Airman Systems Directorate core technical competency lead for aerospace and operational medicine. “It’s definitely appreciated, the general coming out to thank them directly -- that’s awesome.”


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