# Volcanic ash reroutes transport of wounded from Afghanistan

/ Published April 20, 2010

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgts. Joe Cowell and Dan Grivois sit on an empty flight line at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, April 20. A volcano eruption in Iceland has halted air traffic.WASHINGTON (April 20, 2010) – Ash from  an Icelandic volcano limiting European air traffic has forced the U.S.  military to reroute some American troops wounded in Afghanistan through  Iraq instead of Germany, a military official said today.

                         Defense officials decided to transport war wounded to Balad, Iraq, to  increase troops’ level of survival and to maintain medical capacity in  Bagram, home to the primary U.S. medical center in Afghanistan, Air  Force Brig. Gen. Steven L. Kwast said.

“It's all driven by the  requirement medically that that intermediate stop saves lives, and it  needs to be done,” Kwast, commander of the 455th Expeditionary Air Wing,  told Pentagon reporters.

While Balad does not have the same  capacity as the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where  troops normally receive care before returning to the United States for  further treatment, Kwast said, the military has taken measures to ensure  care at the Iraq-based facility is comparable.

“The reality is  that there is no degradation in care because we're going to Balad  instead of Landstuhl,” he said.

Discussing the need to maintain  capacity at the field hospital in Bagram, Kwast cited last year’s battle  at Combat Outpost Keating. Fighting that erupted at the remote U.S.  military camp near the Pakistan border left eight American troops killed  and 24 wounded, necessitating a field hospital equipped for handling  mass casualties.

“We have to be prepared at a moment's notice for  something like a COP Keating or a devastating attack by the enemy,” he  said. “To have that capacity ready at our hands means we have to move  those wounded soldiers [to Iraq], and we have to move them in a way that  allows us that capacity to be prepared for the unexpected.”

Kwast  said the military is using flight paths that circumvent the ash plume  when transporting those wounded and killed in action, albeit on  different flights.

“There has been no degradation in the speed and  the efficiency and the dignity and respect with which those remains  have come back home since the volcanic eruption,” he said.

A plume  of ash that began erupting last week continues to block European and  transatlantic flight paths, including those of American military  aircraft. Thousands of commercial and military flights ranging from  Ireland to the Ukraine have been cancelled as the Eyjafjallajokull  volcano continues to spew ash.

In addition to rerouting Afghan war  casualties, the U.S. military has made other adjustments. American  bases in Mildenhall and Lakenheath, England, and Ramstein and  Spangdahlem air bases in Germany have been affected by the ash plume.

“There  are no flight ops due to the mandatory declaration and suspension of  flights from EuroControl,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said  yesterday. EuroControl is the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Aviation  Administration.

“We still have a solid contingency plan for  evacuating our wounded out of [the U.S. Central Command area], and we've  relocated some of our aeromedical evacuation aircraft to Rota, Spain,  along with medical teams that provide for care all along the route,”  Whitman added.