Military may help in emergency situations

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer

When Hawai'i's lone air ambulance company's five aircraft aren't available for an emergency call, Neighbor Island hospitals can call on the military.

But the military's ability to help is limited by regulations that prevent the armed services from competing with civilian companies and services.

"The Coast Guard isn't mandated to provide medical transport," said Capt. James Angert, chief of the Coast Guard search and rescue branch in Hawai'i. "We're allowed to do it if it doesn't interfere with our primary mission."

The Coast Guard's first responsibility is rescue operations covering 12.2 million square nautical miles of Pacific Ocean, from Hawai'i to the Marshalls, said Angert.

Even when they're available, Coast Guard choppers may not be properly equipped for medical service, he said.

Unless the airlift is a very short one, the craft should be outfitted with monitoring equipment for the patient, and the people who can operate that equipment.

Some suggest that one way to improve the system would be to pursue using the Army Military Assistance for Safety and Traffic service more often for Neighbor Island backup, in addition to its air ambulance duties on O'ahu. But that's not likely to happen, even though MAST does a handful of Neighbor Island transports now.

"It has to be a life-or-death emergency when we respond to the Neighbor Islands," said Army Maj. William Grimes, commander of the 68th Medical Company based at Wheeler Army Airfield, which operates the MAST program on O'ahu.

"In the last year, we've done six. If the patient is too big, or (the emergency is too) complicated, on occasion they call us."

Grimes said he sees no way of establishing a permanent MAST outpost on a Neighbor Island. "With the mission we have, it's too much for us," he said. "There's just no way we can take on another mission."

Even a more formalized "back-up" for Neighbor Islands wouldn't be possible, he said.

"We don't have enough helicopters with external tanks (extra fuel for the over-water distance) and we don't have enough crews. On a case-by-case basis we'll always consider it. But on a formal basis, it's just too much to ask."

Every month, the nine Black Hawks stationed at Wheeler Army Airfield fly about 19 O'ahu air ambulance missions, lifting off within eight minutes and arriving at accident scenes less than 20 minutes after they occur. Black Hawks carry up to six patients.

"The MAST mission goes hand-in-hand with what we do in the military, minus the obvious tactical scenarios," said Grimes, himself one of 24 Army pilots flying the choppers.

If it were to interfere with the Army mission it could be downscaled or even canceled — "but I don't see that happening," he said.

Some wonder why Hawai'i National Guard helicopters stationed on the Big Island can't be used to back up the county helicopter and air ambulance transport systems.

"We don't have anyone on call at the ready," said state adjutant general Maj. Gen. Edward Correa of the Hawai'i National Guard. "There would be a three-to-four-hour delay."

While the choppers are accessible on a case-by-case basis under Civil Defense emergency response procedures, setting up a formal agreement with the state would cost $175,000 a year for two shifts per day and 12 weekends a year, he said.

In a letter to former state Sen. Andrew Levin D-3rd (Ka'u, Kona) last year, Correa called that "prohibitive" for the four choppers stationed on the Big Island.

"It's federal dollars to take care of those aircraft, and if you want to use it for state missions then the state has to pay," said Correa.