Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      SOST members earn Bronze Star MedalsSOST members earn Bronze Star Medals
                        
                        
                        Members of a Special Operations Surgical Team were presented five Bronze Star Medals and a Meritorious Service Medal during a ceremony at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Feb. 13, 2018. The team was recognized for their actions while deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. SOSTs are surgical teams highly trained in providing life-saving care any time, any place. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Victor J. Caputo)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res
        


        SOST members earn Bronze Star MedalsSOST members earn Bronze Star Medals
                        
                        
                        Lt. Col. Ben Mitchell, 720th Operations Support Squadron emergency room doctor and Special Operations Surgical Team leader, salutes Lt. Col. Eli Mitchell, 720th OSS commander, during a ceremony at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Feb. 13, 2018. Five members of a SOST were awarded the Bronze Star Medal for their actions while deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. SOSTs are highly-mobile, tailorable teams of surgical and emergency specialists trained to provide life-saving surgical care and trauma resuscitation on or near the battlefield. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Victor J. Caputo)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res

SOST members earn Bronze Star MedalsPublished Feb. 20, 2018
                    
                    By Bob Shepard
                    
                    
                    University of Alabama at Birmingham
            **BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AFNS)  --**The brightly lit, inviting atrium of the University of Alabama Hospital is a far cry from the two room, concrete-walled farmhouse in the Middle East where the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Surgical Team, based out of the UAB, deployed in 2016. During their four-month tour at that casualty collection point, the team performed the deeds that brought their families, scores of UAB well-wishers, and senior officers from the Air Force Special Operations Command, to the atrium for a medal ceremony on Feb. 13, 2018.
The five members of the SOST Gold Team were awarded Bronze Star Medals by the Air Force for their actions during that deployment.
A SOST is a team of active-duty Air Force medical professionals, including a trauma surgeon, emergency physician, nurse anesthetist, surgical scrub tech, critical-care nurse and a respiratory tech, who are charged with providing far-forward medical care during combat operations wherever the U.S. military is engaged.
“A SOST is a mobile surgical team with advanced medical and tactics training which can deploy to austere or hostile areas to provide surgical support,” said Lt. Col. Ben Mitchell, SOST leader and emergency room medical doctor with the 720th Operations Support Squadron. “Our mission is to provide early, potentially life-saving surgery to wounded American military personnel or to the local population.”
In 2010, UAB became one of the first two civilian hospitals in the nation to host a SOST. The Air Force determined that, when not on deployment abroad, the teams needed to be stationed at a facility where they could best develop their medical and teamwork skills.
“Military hospitals in the states typically don’t see a lot of trauma,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kerby, director of the Division of Acute Care Surgery at UAB. “For a medical team to keep their skills sharp, they need a more challenging environment.”
Kerby, who was an Air Force surgeon before joining UAB, is the conduit between AFSOC and the hospital.
“UAB is a good training ground,” Kerby said. “We are the only adult Level 1 Trauma Center within a 150-mile radius. We see a great many penetrating trauma cases here from gunshot wounds, stabbings or car crashes. Unfortunately, we are a good place to hone trauma skills.”
The team members are fully accredited staff at UAB, treating patients in the emergency department, performing surgery and caring for those in intensive care units.
In 2016, the UAB Gold Team deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, setting up at an austere, forward location that served as a collection point for injured local fighters.
“When we arrived on location, we basically were jumping into a fast-moving river of trauma,” said Lt. Col. Matt Uber, Gold team’s nurse-anesthetist.
There were some local medical personnel at the farmhouse, and some U.S .military medics, but no surgical capacity. As word spread of their arrival, the river of trauma began to flow.
“We had patients on site within two hours of arrival at our location,” Mitchell said. “We treated more than 750 patients during our deployment, working 24/7.”
Mitchell, Uber and the rest of the six-man team experienced 19 mass casualty events — when the river of patients would have overwhelmed even a good-sized emergency department in the states. They performed 16 lifesaving surgeries, sometimes while mortar rounds whistled overhead. Supplies were limited. Capt. Cade Reedy donated his own blood for one wounded fighter, while Maj. Nelson Pacheco organized other locals to donate multiple units.
At times, the patients dramatically outnumbered the providers. Tech. Sgt. Richard Holguin, the team’s respiratory therapist, established an airway on one casualty while single-handedly managing another patient’s chest injury.
For the first time ever in a forward wartime environment, Maj. Justin Manley, Gold team’s surgeon, performed a Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta procedure, in which a balloon catheter is placed into a patient’s femoral artery. The balloon is inflated to stop severe bleeding. It is a difficult, even risky procedure, but it allowed the patient to survive until arrival at an operating room. The team used the same procedure three more times during the deployment, saving four patients who otherwise would not have survived.
Team members say the time spent at UAB when not overseas is important. Training and working together brings the team closer.
“It helps to really know and understand each member of the team — to know what they will do and how they will react to situations that arise,” Mitchell said. “We had some rough days during deployment, and you have to know that you can count on each other in those times.”
UAB hosts three, six-man SOST teams, who rotate on deployments that usually last about four months, followed by 11-12 months at the host medical facility.
“We are adjuncts to the UAB staff, not replacements,” Mitchell said. “We train with our SOST teammates, but also work alongside the incredible medical professionals at UAB as much as possible.” 
“It is gratifying to know that we can play a role in helping the team reach and maintain peak proficiency in their medical skills prior to a deployment where those skills might be needed to save lives on a battlefield,” said Reid Jones, Chief Operating Officer of UAB Medicine. 
The team shares their experiences with their UAB counterparts in an exchange of learning that flows both ways.
“Most of the major, significant contributions in trauma surgery have been made during times of military conflict,” Kerby said. “This affiliation with the Air Force, tapping into their experience and their expertise, certainly has a positive impact on what we are trying to do at UAB as a trauma center. At the same time, their opportunity to work as a team, in a busy, high-volume trauma center, has a positive impact on what they are trying to accomplish.”
SOST members are involved in teaching residents and medical students at UAB through presentations and side-by-side training. The team has worked with over 200 first responders on proper techniques for using tourniquets to stop bleeding after trauma.
“The tourniquet is a great example of how military medicine can change civilian practice,” Kerby said. “Tourniquets had fallen out of favor until recent battlefield experiences reaffirmed their utility in stopping major bleeds following severe trauma. SOST is now helping us re-introduce this lifesaving technique through our Stop the Bleed campaign.”
Kerby said the whole approach to resuscitation has been amended by military experiences. UAB is looking at adding REBOA to its array of available medical procedures, and the SOST’s use of whole blood transfusion might also have applications in civilian medicine.
“This is a win/win situation,” he said. “We help prepare them for their mission, and they come back with new ideas and new thinking that just might save lives in Birmingham, in Alabama and across the nation.”deployment 



special operations 



AFSOC 



Air Force Special Operations Command 



award 



hospital 



medal 



SOST 



Special Operations Surgical Team 



UAB 



University of Alabama at Birmingham 



720th Operations Support Squadron 



Bronze Star Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fight
                    
                    SecAF Kendall AFA Warfare Symposium Q&A: Reoptimizing for Great Power CompetitionInnovation
                AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalists
                    
                    Chief Digital, Artificial Intelligence Office to host hackathon in HawaiiMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil