Mission Medevac at the Library of Congress

Now that the Library of Congress Book Festival is over, programming for the fall has begun. Normally we don’t go to military related events, but the Medevac Mission sounded like it could be interesting. Both my husband and I had health care careers as a surgeon and nurse administrator, and our son is a retired army cardiac surgeon. He served in both Iraq and Afghanistan with three deployments. I worked at the Library if Congress for ten years after a thirty year health care career, so going back to visit us always a nice reminder after spending ten years there. The person in charge of the Veterans History Project introduced the panel made up of two retired and two active duty army Medevac pilots. I knew her from another role she had when I worked at the Library. She had a distinguished military career, is a retired colonel,  and was one of the first, if not the first, female aviator helicopter pilots. Two of the panel members served in Vietnam Nam and the other two were in current conflicts. The program was about the evolution of medical evacuations over time and the changing roles of medics, but the purpose of the missions remained the same. We can’t imagine how it must feel like to be in hair raising situations like that, but we do appreciate caring for the sick and wounded. The flying machines and technology change over time, but the need for Medevac will always exist. If not in the military, for so many civilian purposes.