Officials Say They Have A "Solid Contingency Plan" In
Place
Ash from the eruption of an Icelandic volcano, which
is limiting European air traffic, has forced the U.S. military
to reroute some American troops wounded in Afghanistan through Iraq
instead of Germany, a military official said Tuesday.
Defense officials decided to transport war wounded to Balad,
Iraq, to increase troops' level of survival and to maintain medical
capacity in Bagram, home to the primary U.S. medical center in
Afghanistan, Air Force Brig. Gen. Steven L. Kwast said. "It's all
driven by the requirement medically that that intermediate stop
saves lives, and it needs to be done," Kwast, commander of the
455th Expeditionary Air Wing, told Pentagon reporters. While Balad
does not have the same capacity as the Landstuhl Regional Medical
Center in Germany, where troops normally receive care before
returning to the United States for further treatment, Kwast said,
the military has taken measures to ensure care at the Iraq-based
facility is comparable. "The reality is that there is no
degradation in care because we're going to Balad instead of
Landstuhl," he said.
Discussing the need to maintain capacity at the field hospital
in Bagram, Kwast cited last year's battle at Combat Outpost
Keating. Fighting that erupted at the remote U.S. military camp
near the Pakistan border left eight American troops killed and 24
wounded, necessitating a field hospital equipped for handling mass
casualties. "We have to be prepared at a moment's notice for
something like a COP Keating or a devastating attack by the enemy,"
he said. "To have that capacity ready at our hands means we have to
move those wounded soldiers [to Iraq], and we have to move them in
a way that allows us that capacity to be prepared for the
unexpected."
Kwast said the military is using flight paths that circumvent
the ash plume when transporting those wounded and killed in action,
albeit on different flights. "There has been no degradation in the
speed and the efficiency and the dignity and respect with which
those remains have come back home since the volcanic eruption," he
said.
A plume of ash that began erupting last week continues to block
European and transatlantic flight paths, including those of
American military aircraft. Thousands of commercial and military
flights ranging from Ireland to the Ukraine have been cancelled as
the Eyjafjallajokull volcano continues to spew ash. In addition to
rerouting Afghan war casualties, the U.S. military has made other
adjustments. American bases in Mildenhall and Lakenheath, England,
and Ramstein and Spangdahlem air bases in Germany have been
affected by the ash plume. "We still have a solid contingency plan
for evacuating our wounded out of [the U.S. Central Command area],
and we've relocated some of our aeromedical evacuation aircraft to
Rota, Spain, along with medical teams that provide for care all
along the route," Whitman added.