Richard C. Kirkland - MASH Angels: Tales of an Air-Evac Helicopter Pilot in the Korean War

D uring the half century that followed my Korean War experience, I saw the primitive Chopper we used in Korea transformed into a technological marvel that now flies around the clock saving lives. Todays helicopter performs emergency air evacuation and air rescue by snatching victims from raging flood waters, burning buildings, mountain tops, earthquake sites, accident sites, ship wrecks and many other life threatening situations including one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in American history: Hurricane Katrina, where over 70,000 lives were saved by helicopters.

Having taken a lesson from the life saving performance of Korean War helicopters, U.S. military requirements for the Viet Nam War precipitated the development of a second generation helicopter with advanced technology and turbine power. This new breed of whirlybird was utilized in various combat and rescue applications in Viet Nam that are legendary.

With this experience in hand, designers and manufacturers in the post Viet Nam era began to produce even more efficient and better performing helicopters that were operationally and economically feasible to be utilized for civil emergency medical operations.

In 1967, I flew my pregnant wife to the University Of Chicago Hospital in the middle of the night in a helicopter and landed on the front steps. My son was born a short time later. The next morning the front page of the Chicago Tribune blared: HELICOPTER BEATS STORK! It was sensational and was carried in newspapers across the nation.

However, acceptance of helicopter civil emergency medical evacuation came slowly. But in the 1970s, programs began to develop in major metropolitan centers, sponsored by hospitals and trauma centers. These programs providing quick point to point transportation of accident victims in congested urban areas and for inter hospital transfers. These programs have grown in number and maturity and have spread into rural communities also.

The rural emergency medical operations have demonstrated the life saving capability the helicopter provides as a quick response air ambulance, or air rescue vehicle that does not require an airport and can land almost anywhere to pick up a patient, accident victim, or medical emergency of any type and fly the patient directly to a hospital.

Today, these programs are in operation around the world. There are 310 air medical service providers utilizing over 840 helicopters in the United States alone and they have a remarkable record of saving lives, particularly in rural operations where long distances and limited medical facilities are involved.

Before the rural programs were initiated, victims of roadside accidents or critical illness could wait hours for emergency assistance, then have additional hours of road travel which often meant the difference between life and death.

The rural helicopter emergency medical programs are operated by private enterprise companies across America. They provide a highly effective rapid response on a round the clock basis by channeling the emergency calls through a central state-of-the-art dispatch center that is strategically located.

Trained dispatchers utilize the latest electronics and computerized systems to dispatch the nearest helicopter on the most efficient and acceptable weather route. Satellite tracking provides route and mission management as the helicopters respond to multiple calls across their areas.

To provide the highest possible degree of safety, air crew and maintenance personnel are experienced, highly trained, and standardized. All maintenance is performed under strictly controlled conditions and in accordance with the manufactures and federal maintenance requirements.

Since the helicopter must respond at all hours, fly to and land in all types of weather and terrain conditions, a high degree of pilot skill is required. This is assured through continuing training and procedure checks in the latest technology flight simulators. Medical crews who must also have a high degree of skill and experience and receive continuing training on procedures they must know to handle the various medical challenges they face on a daily basis.

These angels of mercy do not take off and land at paved airports or drive down wide highways. They operate into and out of cluttered areas between power lines and trees, in backyards, corn fields, mountain tops, road sides, or wherever else is necessary to save a patients life. Yet, because of their skill, training, technology, and effective mission management, they do it and save lives, day and night. The proof of their capability is in the results: They save thousands of lives annually that would otherwise have been lost since there was no other way they could have been saved.

Recently, I visited one of the rural operations: The Air Evac Lifeteam, an independent provider at West Plains Mo. As I watched the dispatchers responding to calls, initiating electronic surveillance and dispatching the helicopter crews, my thoughts went back to those primitive days of long ago in Korea. It is deeply satisfying to have been a part of that pioneering effort. But it is even more satisfying to see the heritage of that effort in todays emergency medical MASH ANGELS.

The helicopter emergency medical crews do their lifesaving around the clock in both urban and rural America. Fortunately, Hurricane lifesaving only comes rarely. But it came dramatically with Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005.

The performance of civil and military helicopters and crews who responded to that call performed one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in American history, adding another gold star to the legacy of the MASH ANGELS.

After the hurricane struck, tens of thousands of people were homeless, clinging to roof tops or wreckage in a 90,000 square mile area. Nearly 600 helicopters responded from every corner of the country: They came from emergency medical operators, law enforcement, private owners, and news media, off shore oil companies, utility companies, exploration, forestry, U.S Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and National Guard units throughout America.

Those helicopters snatched survivors under severely adverse conditions of swirling waters, entangled wreckage, hanging electrical wires, fallen trees, and billowing smoke from raging fires. Those equipped with night vision goggles continued the life saving even after dark. When they couldnt land on the tops of flooded buildings and houses, they hovered around the entangled power lines and trees, or used their rescue hoists to lift survivors from the water, roof tops or floating wreckage.

The larger helicopters carried 10,000 pound sand bags to fill holes in the dikes. Others evacuated survivors from the collection points to safety out of the flooded area.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF SURVIVORS AT KATRINA COULD NOT HAVE BEEN SAVED BY ANY OTHER MEANS THAN BY HELICOPTER because of the conditions and because it had to be done swiftly and effectively before lives were lost. And despite the adversity of high risk operating conditions, not a single life was lost by helicopter accident during the entire operation. This remarkable performance by helicopters at Katrina may well be the greatest humanitarian effort in American history.

Igor Sikorsky, father of the American helicopter, said to me in December of 1955: The helicopter concept is wholly rational and I envision it will bring into the world a whole new means of saving lives.

If Igor were here today, he would join me in saying: Congratulations to Americas MASH ANGELS. Keep up the great work!

Richard C. Kirkland
Vienna, Virginia
August, 2009

B ogies twelve oclock. Drop your tanks, came the calm voice of Captain Dick Bong in my earphones. Normally Bong didnt talk much during a dogfighthe was too busy blowing Zeros out of the sky. But on this flight he was leading the squadron, so it was his job to call for external-fuel-tank drop when an enemy engagement was imminent.