RAAF responds with Yasi Assist

Receiving the call to deploy to Cairns from the Air Mobility Control Centre (AMCC) on a Tuesday afternoon, the night of February 1 effectively became D-Day for the men and women of the RAAF’s 84 and 86 Wings (WG). The main aerial contingent for that night comprised of two C-130s (37SQN, 84WG) and two C-17A Globemaster IIIs (36SQN, 86WG). A host of RAAF aeromedical evacuation (AME) teams, Mobile Air Load Teams (MALTs), supplies and support personnel boarded one of four transports at either RAAF base Richmond, Williamtown or Amberley and flew straight to Cairns, preparing themselves for what was to come. As one of the C-17 pilots who touched down in Cairns around 10pm, CO of 36SQN, WGCDR Paul Long recalls his experience of participating in the ADF’s Operation Yasi Assist.

“Turning around on the ground, we get a call, ‘Ok, what do you need?’. They’ll say, ‘Ok, it’s an aeromedical evacuation’ and assuming everyone’s there…within an hour we can have the back of the aircraft configured ready to go. It’s really quick. Alot of the triages and everything are already on the aircraft, you just go ‘Ok, what do you need, how many seats do you need?’, zip up the required amount of seats or however many stretchers, pull down the appropriate straps…The intensive care stuff takes a little bit longer but certainly within an hour,” the 23 year RAAF veteran explains.

The short configuration time is also helped by the ‘roll-on, roll-off’ medical packs which the C-17 can accommodate.

“Each aircraft has on board an aero medical evacuation team,” WG CDR Long continues.

“The ones that came out of Sydney, out of Richmond, they had air movements teams on board and there was also an air movements team loaded on out of Williamtown.

“When we landed in Cairns, we all got there around the same time, it was around about 10 o’clock at night I believe. And myself and another Wing Commander who was from Richmond, we were there to coordinate the ground activities.

“There was also an aeromedical evacuation doctor who was there in a co-ord role as well. So we had basically three Wing Commanders co-ording the medical side and the operational side.”

Leading the AME teams was RAAF senior doctor Health Services Wing (HSW) and staff officer Health Operations, WGCDR Stephen Davis. The 20 year RAAF veteran remembers the night and early morning well, as patients were rapidly loaded on board the C-130 and C-17 transports before Cyclone Yasi hit the coast. HSW commands 1, 2, 3 and 4 Health Expeditionary Squadrons, elements of which were tasked during Operation Yasi Assist.

“In that initial phase, we were working with our units and tasking our units to provide aeromedical evacuation teams for Yasi Assist,” WGCDR Davis said.

“When we landed in Cairns, I was on the last aircraft in…My first role was to liaise with the Queensland Health staff on the ground, and then I worked very closely with the Queensland Health doctor on the ground, who was Doctor Little.

“We basically triaged the patients and did an assessment as to what their needs were going to be in flight, and allocated the patients to particular aircraft, depending on what their medical needs were.”

While the 102 stretchered patients and 67 walking patients were spread across the four aircraft, WGCDR Long’s C-17 took all four high dependency patients, enabling the AME team onboard to consolidate their aid efforts.

“That means the medical team can use their own synergies to work with each other. They’ve got four beds and not four teams split over four aircraft. They [medical teams] block off basically one side of the aircraft to do that.”

The kinds of medical evacuees WGCDR Long recalled represented a “real mix of people”, with ‘walking wounded’, stretcher patients and the elderly all boarding the transports.

“It was very satisfying, very satisfying to take them out,” WGCDR Long said.

WGCDR Davis also noted the importance of both the C-130s and C-17s AME lift capability, which was crucial in providing patient care and support during the evacuation.

“I think the aeromedical evacuation capability that the Air Force has on both the C-130 and C-17 platforms is very important for the ADF, for our operational requirement but also for the wider Australian community, for mass casualty events such as the Bali Bombings or also, as we’ve seen with Yasi Assist, the evacuation of a large number of patients in a short period of time,” he said.

As part of more than 1200 soldiers, sailors and airmen who fell under Joint Task Force (JTF) 664 during Yasi Assist, director of AMCC and OC of 84WG, Group Captain Don Sutherland explained how RAAF personnel were effectively utilised by Commander JTF, Army BRIG Stuart Smith.

“When the JTF itself stood up, we had basically three aircraft assigned to direct support, and that was either a mixture of C-130s or C-17s, and we had the King Airs as well doing some photographic [reconnaissance] and light general duties.

“To facilitate that, and this is something that we intend to do for all JTFs, is set up an ACCE, so Air Component Coordination Element. So basically…with the JTF, we will put forward some expertise, in this case some air lift expertise, forward with them so that they can inform the JTF Commander of what our capabilities are, how best to utilise whatever he’s got, really what to ask for.

“The JTF’s got an area that he or she’s focused on, whereas airlift or air power in general can come in and out of that area very quickly, and when it’s not being used by that JTF, we can do other things with it.

“Very much what we [RAAF] like to request is that people requesting airlift or air mobility actually ask for a capability, not a platform.”

GPCAPT Sutherland notes how JTF Commanders requesting an air capability as opposed to a platform is essential to helping the AMCC and ACCE determine which resources it can best utilise and deploy to humanitarian/disaster relief operations. Operation Yasi Assist was no different, requiring the frequent use of RAAF aircraft to transport not only medical patients, but supplies, equipment and support personnel into north Queensland following the aftermath of the cyclone.

“So they [JTF Commander] say [for example] ‘I need to move 120 people and 2000 pounds worth of stuff’, rather than ‘Can you give me a Herc?’, and we’ll work out the best way of moving that equipment.

“To some extent that’s what the ACCE forward will do, they’re almost that out component of the air component, and they’ll provide the JTF Commander with that sort of guidance…Conversely, they[ACCE personnel] will explain our limitations back to the JTF Commander.”

All in all, it was a solid a team effort with RAAF relief operations continuing throughout the week. GPCAPT Don Sutherland summarised it best when he praised the efforts of all RAAF personnel involved in Operation Yasi Assist.

“It’s [disaster relief] an inherent role that we train for, so when a natural disaster or when the government calls us to perform this, we’re ready.
“Certainly, it’s not something that we take lightly. We do make sure we’re prepared to do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“We never have any problems in motivating the crews to do these sort of things, or getting crews to go that little bit extra when it comes to an event of national significance like this…We work very closely with the AME teams, because don’t forget, we are the platform that carries whatever the capability is, so we’re very cognisant of the fact that we’ve got to deliver, move, whatever the requirement is in a safe and efficient manner.

“It’s like a chain, you’re as strong as its weakest link. All these things have to happen, all these support elements, all these people have to do their job, use all their expertise…to make this hopefully look as seamlessly as it looks when you see it on TV or you watch it from the outside looking in.

“There’s a lot of wheels spinning in the background,” GPCAPT Sutherland concluded.

For the RAAF’s AMCC, AME teams and numerous support personnel involved in disaster relief operations throughout Australia and around the world, it’s all simply part of the job.