Disturbing News About Combat CASEVACs

[S2]

This editorial disturbed me. I've always believed our MEDEVAC choppers would fly willingly into harm's way to get our guys. Not so. Requirements now demand that no MEDEVAC chopper fly without armed escort...nor can they be themselves armed.

A recent case of a IED wounded man in Afghanistan highlights this "slip-between-the-cracks" nonsense...tragically-

Bureaucracy Killing Troops In Afghanistan-Washington Times

[1979]

I think the article 2 of the 1949 convention is clear enough on the topic, despite the
editorial assessment.

[Tanker]

This editorial disturbed me. I've always believed our MEDEVAC choppers would fly willingly into harm's way to get our guys. Not so. Requirements now demand that no MEDEVAC chopper fly without armed escort...nor can they be themselves armed.

A recent case of a IED wounded man in Afghanistan highlights this "slip-between-the-cracks" nonsense...tragically-

Bureaucracy Killing Troops In Afghanistan-Washington Times

This isn't new news. Yon started this campaign last year in July or August. An interesting point is that all of Michael's original info has been removed from the piece. The ISAF responded to the media directly after Yon made this point. Don't get me wrong Yon was a good reporter and a former Special Forces soldier. He was also a friend. Until I started getting email from the DOA in regards to some of his claims.

Here is the ISAF response to Michael's allegations as of November 2011:

BLACKFIVE: Michael Yon vs. Professional Soldiers - And the winner is...

I made several attempts (and got myself into trouble at work) at trying to find the response on ther ISAF website and found none. When using Col. Kolb's words directly in the search it goes to one of several MilBlogs. I never found it on the ISAF website.

I will state this, as a former USAF Security Police Officer who has worked with PR their helicopters are not medevac equiped and their mission is not what Yon states it should be. Also, I have been a fan of arming Medevac helo's since DS.

[S2]

I'm less interested in whether air force birds fly on behalf of our grunts or removing the markings on our MEDEVAC birds and arming them.

I'm more interested in what constitutes armed escort and why, absent that, birds don't fly. Do fast movers qualify sufficient to get a MEDEVAC up? Are we to presume that it's acceptable for an infantry platoon to operate without attack helicopters and/or CAS but MEDEVACs cannot or will not operate in the same? If so, then it's o.k. for an infantryman to be wounded with no means to transport him to the rear but it's not o.k. to risk getting a UH 60 into an LZ that might be hot (or not).

[Doktor]

S-2,

I understand your concern, but does your infantry goes anywhere without a support?

Also, by the same analogy, if no helos around would the same infantry without backup send more troops to evac the wounded?

P.S. Who says that medical units can't fly without armed companions?

[S2]

Doktor Reply

"I understand your concern, but does your infantry goes anywhere without a support?"

Without air support? I don't know but I imagine it's not out of the realm of possibility. We assume with the U.S. military that 24/7 air cover is available yet that's evidently not always the case if including Army attack aviation.

Further, "air support" might mean different things to different people. Could that be re-supply? CAS from USAF/USN fast-movers? Or U.S. Army attack aviation?

Does CAS overhead qualify as armed escort for MEDEVAC? I don't know. If not, however, then apparently we require (just as it sounds) an "armed escort" of Apaches or Cobras to accompany a MEDEVAC flight.

"...Also, by the same analogy, if no helos around would the same infantry without backup send more troops to evac the wounded...?"

We're beginning to diverge from the thread's intent but how would they get there rapidly in Afghanistan? Not always but virtually all locations are impeded by bad roads, rough terrain or both. 25 miles, as in the editorial, might often as well be the other side of the moon in Afghanistan.

"...P.S. Who says that medical units can't fly without armed companions?"

The author of the editorial. If untrue, what prevented a MEDEVAC from lifting in the described scenario within the article?