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Combat Medic TV series Nat Geo


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So I just DVR'd the first episode of Combat Rescue from Nat Geo. At first I thought it was Army Medevac crews from a few pics I had seen from DirecTV ads, but its actually AF PJ's.

 

They have some pretty cool footage of stuff and real missions, the pilots are wearing go pro's which is pretty sweet.

 

Has anyone else seen it yet? Any thoughts. I thought it was cool how they put FM freq's on the windshield in dry erase, I was thinking about flipping through my commo card trying to find a freq and laughed.

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It was really good. First episode was Air Force but I don't know if the entire series is based on this unit. Focused mostly on the pj's and medical staff but the aviators were a major part obviously. Very ensightful if you're interested in flying medivac, but the series is not for the faint of heart, as is the job.

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Yeah there really isn't any sensoring to speak of, they pretty much just show you that medics leg thats blown off when the thermal blanket blows off.

 

Those hawks are def close to MGWT but I'd rather fly with mini guns than fly a stripped out Army med carousel bird that only has m4's to defend itself from small arms engagements

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If my goal is to get the patient out and into a hospital I'll take a stripped out Black Hawk over anything with guns. Especially when it comes with Army medics over Air Force PJs.

 

Just because?

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No, because guns are almost always unneccesary, but I guess if you have some good ones you feel this need to blaze into every possibly hot LZ like Johnny Badass shooting up the place, meanwhile your patient is bleeding out waiting for you to get on the ground and provide actual medical care. Nobody does Medevac better than the Army. They will outshine Pedro every time in the stats that matter (time to pick up, time to higher level of care, lives saved).

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To bad their 60s are clapped out. And with all that sh*t on them, and a massive crew, their useful load aint great....

 

 

But they do fly the piss out of them.

 

I was hoping the AF was going to go with the HH-47's on their last CSAR-X bid. Instead, it's been 6 years since and they're no closer to replacement. A report I saw a year or two ago about the fleet of HH-60Gs did not paint a good picture looking forward. But I realize the entire military is gonna have to start doing more with less. As long as they're able to do their thing... "So Others May Live."

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No, because guns are almost always unneccesary, but I guess if you have some good ones you feel this need to blaze into every possibly hot LZ like Johnny Badass shooting up the place, meanwhile your patient is bleeding out waiting for you to get on the ground and provide actual medical care. Nobody does Medevac better than the Army. They will outshine Pedro every time in the stats that matter (time to pick up, time to higher level of care, lives saved).

 

I agree. The "Jolly" and "Pedro" guys are quite valuable assets during the initial stages of an invasion. That's the best chance of isolated personel ops. Once we're established and set up shop, we have friendlies on the ground and in the air everywhere. So that leaves the CSAR guys with no missions, and in recent years taking MEDEVAC missions from the Army.

 

No way a CSAR crew gets airborne as fast as an Army Med crew. I remember one day doing "Med Chase" I was feeling good that I got my aircraft and crew ready in 5 mins. Unfortunately the med left us in the dust and were a mile in front of us while I called tower for clearance! I took part in the biggest op in RC East During OEF X and observed CSAR taking a MEDEVAC mission from the Army. I won't go into details, but I really wasn't pleased in their performance.

 

I've heard PJ guys bragging about having firepower and the MEDEVAC not. As D10 said it really isn't important for MEDEVAC. You can bet there aren't many CSAR guys returing fire during a MEDEVAC. First, unless they're extremely close you're not gonna see the enemy. Second, you start shooting 50 cal and mini guns off with friendlies everywhere, you got a good chance of fratracide. Finally, Med Chase has a birds eye view of the action and can provide support with the 240s...not to mention 58s or 64s are probably providing cover anyway.

 

Army Aviation is incredibly flexible when it comes to CSAR. The Army doesn't have dedicated CSAR units because we simply don't need it. For those of you who don't know we train to CSAR just like anything else and are ready to execute at a moments notice. In theater you have Army helos running around the country like wild men. If you think I'm gonna see a fighter guy under canopy drifting to the ground and say "leave it for Air Force CSAR" you're nuts. All it takes is a click of the mike to find out what kind of AH / OH assets in the area and we go off and do a adhoc CSAR. Several cases of Apache self extraction in theater as well. You're PIC, sometimes doctrine goes out the window and you simply do what is necessary to make a favorable outcome.

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No, because guns are almost always unneccesary, but I guess if you have some good ones you feel this need to blaze into every possibly hot LZ like Johnny Badass shooting up the place, meanwhile your patient is bleeding out waiting for you to get on the ground and provide actual medical care. Nobody does Medevac better than the Army. They will outshine Pedro every time in the stats that matter (time to pick up, time to higher level of care, lives saved).

 

Though I completely get what you are saying and I agree about a stripped out helo vs. an armed one I have to say that there are units that fly MEDEVAC along side the Army that have a proven record of 100% mission completion, no lost patients, and extremely fast response time that are not Army units. Without degrading the fact that the Army does the job excellently, I would at least recognize that the Dustoff legacy is shared.

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