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Family in Flight: Air Force siblings team up for medical readiness exercise
April 22, 2025 — More than 40 U.S. Airmen and Air National Guardsmen participated in Operation Vapor Trails, a recurring medical readiness exercise centered on aeromedical evacuation, on March 28, 2025... MORE

Afghanistan CCATT mission a ‘not-so-routine’ operation
January 19, 2023 — Aug. 26, 2021, was a terrible day of bloodshed and destruction near Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, when a suicide bomber killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. That same day, shortly after the bombing, U.S. Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Dominick Vitale, Brooke Army Medical Center critical care/trauma surgeon, and the remaining members of the Critical Care Air Transport Team, or CCATT, were on the first aircraft to land and evacuate the severely injured to Ramstein Air Base, Germany... MORE

U.S. Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Dominick Vitale

BAMC pediatric CCAT mission helps save critically ill child
October 14, 2022 — A team from Brooke Army Medical Center recently flew to Guam to transport a critically ill boy to Rady Children’s hospital in San Diego for treatment... MORE

59th Medical Wing performs first CCATT training mission
January 19, 2022 — The 59th Medical Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland performed the first-ever in-flight Critical Care Air Transport Team training mission Jan. 12... MORE

No effort spared to bring home seriously wounded Soldier
October 2, 2019 — Over four days, three aircraft, 18 medical specialists, including from the 59th Medical Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, more than 24,000 gallons of fuel, and 100 liters of blood were committed across an 8,000-mile journey to a single goal – saving the life of one Soldier... MORE

A critical care air transport team tends to a patient during a nearly 20-hour direct flight from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, to San Antonio on Aug. 18, 2019. The service member was cared for by a joint service team of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation specialists, an aeromedical evacuation team and a CCATT in order to maintain the highest level of care possible during transport.

59th MDW CCATT team flys mother, baby home safely after 7 months in ICU
June 14, 2019 — Her anxious brown eyes stare large around her. The red jump seats, wires, oxygen masks, bare sheet metal and overall cold, dark interior of a C-130 Hercules are not comforting to the young mother whose 7-month-old son is out of an intensive care unit for the first time... MORE

Capt. Nicole Leib and Maj. Mariana Lacuzong, 59th Medical Wing critical care air transport team nurses, play with 7-month-old patient, Nakoa Crawford, during the five-hour flight from Dallas to San Diego June 7, 2019. Comprised of a doctor, nurse and respiratory therapist, the team must pack everything the will need while airborne - echocardiogram, oxygen, blood, medicine and other tools of the trade.

59th Medical Wing's CCATT flight makes three point turn
July 25, 2018 — The 59th Medical Wing executed three back-to-back aeromedical transport missions departing from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland July 19, making coast-to-coast stops before returning home two days later... MORE

A 59th Medical Wing Critical Care Air Transport Team member awaits for other patients to arrive at their aircraft in San Diego, California, July 20. Teams are regularly dispatched all over the globe to respond to emergencies, assist in Department of Defense contingency missions and reinforce readiness training through real-world civil and humanitarian assistance missions.

59th Medical Wing executes five missions at once
May 1, 2018 — The 59th Medical Wing orchestrated five air transport missions simultaneously during the week of April 16-2o... MORE

59th Medical Wing CCATT team members, in conjunction with mission partners, transition from their aircraft to an ambulance during an infant patient transport mission from Germany to Walter Reed National Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., April 19th, 2018. Examples of conditions requiring CCATT support include supportive or resuscitate care of shock/hemorrhage, respiratory failure, and multi-system trauma.