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"As the Guard migrated into the homeland defense mission, we got away from the CCATT mission," Air Force Col. Brett Wyrick, air surgeon for the Air National Guard, told participants in a " DOW Live" bloggers roundtable Jan. 11."However, recently what we've discovered is that there is a need for the Air National Guard in the CCATT mission," he said, "and also we've got quite a bit of expertise in the Guard and in the Reserve that allows us to meet the demands of the mission and take some of the strain off the active-duty sources, who have been stretched quite thin by the ongoing conflicts." The Air Force surgeon general introduced the concept about 10 years ago to meet a need for transporting the most critically injured patients in the aeromedical evacuation system. "This is a mission where we actually bring everything that you would find in an intensive care unit to the air frame," Wyrick said. "And it gives us the ability to move injured and wounded soldiers and airmen, Marines from the forward areas of the battlefield back to a tertiary care facility either in Europe, the Pacific or the United States." A critical care air transport team consists of an intensive care physician, a critical care nurse and a respiratory technician. The first Air Guard team is on alert at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany. "If there's a need downrange, they can deploy forward from Ramstein into Iraq, Afghanistan or even into the African continent if there's a need for that," Wyrick said, "and then they [are transported with] the patients back to the United States or back to Europe, wherever the mission [dictates]." After this requirement was validated, it took less than six months for the Air Guard to field its first team with the help of the Air Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute's Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills at the University of Cincinnati. "We're going to have a constant and persistent line in the [aeromedical evacuation flight] now [and] for the next two years out of Ramstein," he said. Wyrick said the Air Guard plans to stand up 18 full teams from 17 states. Many of them have begun training, and they are expected to reach full operational capability within the next two years. The Air Guard also has volunteers from all 54 states and territories who would like to augment these teams when needed, he said. "There're a number of Guardsmen out there from various states who want to participate in the mission, who have the medical training and qualification to participate in the mission," Wyrick said. "And we're accepting them as volunteers." The current team consists of Col. (Dr.) Bruce Guerdan, who is the state air surgeon for the Florida Air Guard, Lt. Col. David Worley, a nurse from the Kentucky Air Guard, and Master Sgt. Jody Nitz, a respiratory therapist from the Michigan Air Guard. "So, we did combine people from all over the country to put these volunteer teams together," Wyrick said. The doctors will rotate about every 30 days, and the nurses and respiratory technicians will average about 60 days. At least one nurse has volunteered to serve for six months. All of these Air Guard medical personnel have one thing in common: experience. "If you look at your average Guard physician, he's got at least 15 to 20 years in medicine," Wyrick said. "Many of those are in primary care. And when you look at it most of us have an active-duty background, and then after they leave the military, then they go back out and they respecialize or they subspecialize. "So, we've got a lot of critical care physicians, a lot of surgeons, anesthesiologists -- guys who have literally written the book on modern medicine are residing in the Air Guard," he continued. "And by putting them in the CCATT mission, we bring years of experience and we bring years of knowledge that make us a good total force partner for the Air Force." Many of the volunteers, he said, have critical care air transport team experience, but "a lot of them, by virtue of the fact that there are already specialists in the civilian health care world, they bring that experience and they're readily trainable to the CCATT mission." In addition to its federal mission, a team also could be used for emergency response here at home. "For instance, if we had a situation on the Gulf Coast where a big hurricane rolls up on shore and you need to evacuate civilian patients from a civilian hospital in the hurricane's path, that would be another use for the CCATT teams," Wyrick said. "It gives you a way to transport critically injured patients from the strike zone to areas of safety. So it's not just battlefield and combat casualties; it could also be in humanitarian roles or in a disaster situation." Wyrick added that the states have access to Air Force equipment in the event of a disaster. "There just aren't the barriers that there used to be," he said. "After [Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005], there's been a lot of crosstalk, there's been a lot of planning, and we have access to the equipment and supplies that we need when we need them." Air Guard critical care air transport teams use life-support equipment that has been tested and verified as being safe and airworthy. "When you're talking about transporting patients through the air, what you have is what you bring with you," Wyrick said. "And the systems have to be super-reliable, there has to be redundancies in there, and they have to be safe for flight." The team's typical patient will come with a stretcher, a monitor, intravenous pumps and also a ventilator to maintain respiration throughout the mission, he said. In addition to the equipment, the teams often fly with a full aeromedical evacuation crew, which cares for the less-critical patients. However, the critical care air transport team may not have an aeromedical crew with them on every flight. "It depends on whether it's a routine scheduled mission or whether it's an emergency," Wyrick explained. "In a pinch, these guys can convert anything into [an] air evac platform." Wyrick said the Air Force has moved away from the concept that aeromedical evacuation is an air frame. Critical care air transport teams are the "back-end medical crew," he said. "As far as the aircraft goes, the CCATT teams can use an aircraft of opportunity, and while everybody prefers to have a C-17 because of the design in the room, we also fly missions from the theater far forward in Afghanistan back to the United States in KC-135s, or we can also do this in a C-5 or whatever aircraft is designated as the aeromedical evacuation platform." Only the most-critical patients will require a critical care air transport team, Wyrick said. "We're taking patients that otherwise wouldn't be candidates for the aeromedical evacuation system, because we really are talking about the most severely injured patients [at Landstuhl Army medical Center in Germany]," Wyrick said. Each team can handle up to four patients, who are flown directly from Landstuhl back to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington or National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., or to the burn center at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. How quickly a patient is transported back to the United States depends on the patient's needs, Wyrick said. "A lot of times when the patients come back from the forward areas, there's more surgery to be done on them," he explained. "And after they've undergone the combat resuscitation and stabilization, then when they get to Landstuhl, there could be other procedures that are done where they take the patient back to the [operating room], and then it might be several days, or even weeks, before the patient is actually ready for transport back to the United States." He added that a patient who has suffered a burn could be shipped back almost immediately to San Antonio. The Air Guard critical care air transport team was scheduled for its first flight back to Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility Washington in Maryland on Jan. 11, no critical care patients needed movement from Landstuhl back to the United States. "So that's actually a good thing," Wyrick said. "Because the fewer injured patients there are for the United States military, the better things are going. So they're sitting alert right now, and they're ready." Jan. 13, 2011: By Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke- National Guard Bureau

Bill Badger, 74, a former Army colonel who now lives in the Tucson area, tackled suspect Jared Loughner, although Badger himself was wounded by one of the rounds fired during the shooting.Badger said his military training took over after he was shot and then faced the suspected shooter. While living in Pierre, S.D., from 1965 to 1973, he served in the South Dakota National Guard, flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Three of his children -- sons Tim and Brady Badger and daughter Jody Hardwick -- still live in Pierre, and another, Lonnie Badger, lives in Sioux Falls, S.D.The former Guard member said he communicates regularly with Giffords and her staff, and he was invited to attend the event the congresswoman was holding in a supermarket parking lot. He said he was waiting to speak with Giffords and was talking with other people when he heard the shots, he said.Giffords, a federal judge, and a 9-year-old girl already had been shot when he saw what was happening, Badger said. "He was just coming right down the line. He wasn't walking. He was just aiming and just shooting everybody that was sitting in a chair there," Badger said. "Some of them who were being hit were falling over, and the rest started to hit the pavement." As he tried to get to the ground, Badger said, he felt "a burning sensation" in the back of his head and knew he had been hit by a bullet. Once he heard the shooting stop, he added, he stood up and saw the suspect standing in front of him, going right to left. As the suspect walked past by him, Badger said, someone hit the alleged assailant with a folding chair. At the same time, he recalled, Badger and another man grabbed the suspect by the arms and shoulders, pushing him to the pavement, and kept him there until police arrived. During the takedown, Badger said, he saw the suspect try to throw away a small plastic bag full of money and personal identification, Badger said, and he pointed out the bag to law enforcement officers. Badger, one of 19 people injured in the shooting, said he didn't have time to worry about being killed, and that his military training took over. He stressed that he doesn't consider himself to be a hero, and just did what anyone would have done. "I have to be the luckiest person in the world," he said. "Some individual told me I should go and buy a lottery ticket. I said, 'I just won the lottery by not being killed.'" Tim Badger said he and his siblings are proud of their father and thankful he was not seriously hurt. Jan. 12, 2011: From a South Dakota National Guard News Release

In October 1944, Navy Cross recipient and fighter ace William E. "Bill" Davis participated in a bombing run on the Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku, the last remaining aircraft carrier afloat that had taken part in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Davis recalled the harrowing experience during a Dec. 8 " DOW Live" bloggers roundtable."There were two clouds forming, one at 10,000 feet and one at about 4,000 feet, of continuously exploding shells, and I knew there was no chance to fly through that and come out the other end," he said. "But I still didn't care. I was going to get my hit. I went down, went through both clouds without taking a single hit, which is hard to imagine, and went fairly low. I pulled the release and pulled out, and of course, blacked out." Moments later, Davis said, he came to. "Blood came back to my brain, or what was left of it, and I could see again, and I was actually clipping the spray from the waves," he recalled. "Another five feet would have done it. But I had not been hit." Despite that miraculous escape, the pilot was not out of harm's way yet. "I was kind of marveling that I was still alive," he said. "But I looked up and saw that I was flying into the side of a Japanese ship, the Oyodo. Before I hit the ship, I rolled the plane on its side, and went through between the No. 2 gun turret and the bridge. And I could see the Japanese crew in on the bridge manning the wheel, all in dress whites. I have a feeling that that was because they expected to die that day." Having survived the run unscathed and earning the Navy Cross, Davis settled down with his family in California. Drives to the Sierra Mountains for annual ski trips inspired him to tell his story in book form. "At that time, it was before FM radio and so forth," he said. "You couldn't get anything the other side of the Sierra. So we were driving up and one of my daughters said, 'Daddy, tell us war stories.' And I hadn't thought of telling them, and it became a routine. When we went skiing, I told stories going up and back. And finally, I had to tell more and more." While looking back at all his experiences may have been a bit challenging, Davis said, he had a little help from diaries he kept during the war. "I didn't know we weren't allowed to keep diaries," he said. "Somehow that directive missed me. So I had something to work from and a map of all of our movements throughout the Pacific." The resulting book, "Sinking the Rising Sun," documents Davis' service in the Navy, his experiences in World War II, and even his first time in an airplane. "At the time I volunteered for the Naval Air Corps, I'd never been in an airplane," he admitted. The book has received favorable reviews, and the 89-year-old former pilot is considering opportunities to promote his memoir. "I haven't made it to a bigtime, on-camera interview with any of the talk shows, which I would love to do," he said. Dec. 13, 2010: By Jian DeLeon- Emerging Media, Defense Media Activity  Redistributed by www.SupportOurTroops.org

Following the presentment, friends and family and Sal Giunta's unit, the Bravo Bulls, gathered for a reception at the Sheraton in DC. The reception was thought up and organized by the proud and loving relatives of Sal Giunta.The role of SupportOurTroops.Org consisted of assisting in the gathering of donations in support of the event. We also made a supporting contribution toward the reception costs, and were able to facilitate the gathering of about half of those costs to assist those organizing the event. The prime mover of the reception was Mike Giunta, who did all the heavy lifting to proudly get this done for his relative and the Bravo Bulls who were returned to the U.S. in order to be able to participate in the ceremony and the reception.One of the things SupportOurTroops.Org does is act behind the scenes to bridge various gaps in many special types of situations that arise in which expertise and facilitation is needed in order to benefit members of the military. Support Our Troops Inc., provides artful, confidential, behind-the-scenes support in a variety of situations benefiting the deployed troops. The picture in this article was taken right after the Bravo Bulls very cool punch bowl ceremony at the Medal of Honor reception November 16, 2010. We had something to do with the punch bowl ceremony. One of the bravo Bulls members is going write up that and other reception events and get them to us to post. So watch for it. The thing about people like Sal Giunta is, they're actually embarrassed by all of the attention. They don't seek out public reward or approbation, and would prefer to simply keep going on about their business unpublicized. When attention or award is focused upon them to set an example for others, they accept it humbly on behalf of others they know would do the same, and then promptly go back about their business. These are what you call real men and real women. To be sure, modest as Sal Giunta is, the Bravo Bulls are all proud of their fellow soldier. America has every right to be proud of him, and we're grateful to have been able to assist in a modest background role with the event for them all.  The interesting thing about protectors and defenders like Sal Giunta is that doing good is routine for them and will remain their habit for the rest of their lives. When their military duties are done, they will come home and set about doing good works amongst and benefiting us all.  You probably won't know who they are and what they've done unless someone else tells you.  America is unique in the world, giving birth to more of this type of man and woman than any other nation. Those willing to actually step forward at risk to themselves and act for the sake of Good and Right.  And we at home in turn have a duty to keep our national house in order while are neighbors are off protecting it and doing good in the world. May God bless and watch over each and every one of our wonderful American troops. Martin C. Boire, Chairman Support Our Troops^® December 11, 2010.