Staff Sgt. Angelica Pinkney takes more than 30 first-time Patient Administration and Disposition volunteers on a tour of the Air Force Theater Hospital at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, Oct. 22. Pinkney, with the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Support Squadron, is deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base. Courtesy photo

By Don Branum
332nd Air Expeditionary Wing

Two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters descend on the Patient Administration and Disposition landing zone at Balad Air Base, Iraq, their blades kicking up dust as they blows air outward at speeds of 50 mph or more.

Noise from the Black Hawks’ rotors drowns out any attempts at conversation, so the helicopter crews and PAD staff use hand signals to communicate with volunteers, who approach with caution.

The volunteers take up positions beside the door of one helicopter and carefully unload a litter carrying a patient and medical equipment onto a waiting gurney. They wheel the patient through Hero’s Highway and into the Air Force Theater Hospital’s emergency room. Without their efforts, a critical link in the Air Force’s “care chain” would suffer.

Staff Sgt. Angelica Pinkney is the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Support Squadron’s night shift PAD boss, which puts her in charge of training and coordinating the PAD’s many volunteers. A native of Freeport, Texas, she joined the Air Force in 2002 because she wanted a job in the medical career field. She deployed here in September.

“I don’t want to be anywhere else,” said Pinkney, who is deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base. “We’re helping people here. What we do gives me a real sense of accomplishment.”

On average, about 200 people volunteer at the PAD each month, contributing anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 total volunteer hours.

“We have people who are out here every night,” she said. “They come in at all hours – we have some people who come in from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.” Many have worked 200 hours, 300 hours or more. One of the top veterans, Army Sgt. James Vielle of the 602nd Maintenance Company, has contributed more than 600 hours.

Volunteers come from every branch of military service, and a number of volunteers are Department of Defense civilians. Mike Zajicek conducts facility inspections for the 402nd Army Field Support Brigade Safety Office during the day but often spends his evenings at the PAD.

“I spent four years as a Marine infantryman,” he said. “When I got out, I didn’t have much of a plan. I went to the Veterans’ Affairs office, and they gave me 40-percent disability. But then [the terrorist attacks of] Sept. 11 happened, and the military wouldn’t let me back in.”

Instead, Zajicek got a job at the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., where he is now a test director. While here, he has contributed more than 300 volunteer hours.

“Volunteering here makes me feel like I’m part of the fight again,” he said. Volunteers who contribute more than 50 hours receive special passes to the hospital. These passes mark them as PAD “veterans” who can train volunteers and even help bring newly deployed PAD staff up to speed.

Many of them contribute in other ways, as well: Airman 1st Class Cory McKnight, a structures apprentice with the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, built four training platforms shortly after he arrived at Balad. The platforms simulate the loading racks for litters in the UH-60s. Having five of them instead of one has vastly increased the PAD staff’s ability to train new volunteers.

Pinkney held one such training class Oct. 22, teaching 33 new volunteers how to attach litters to gurneys and how to safely move around helicopters.