New Technologies Bring Home Grievously Wounded Troops

An HH-60 Pavehawk helicopter hovers over the air strip at Bagram Air Field in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Lifelines: New Technologies Bring Home Grievously Wounded Troops -- US News and World Report

Family of wounded soldier able comfort son as he's flown home for treatment.

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- Barry and Lorria Welch sit solemnly in the jump seats of the massive C-17 cargo plane. Their son, who joined the Army three years ago to pay off thousands of dollars in student debt from getting his associates degree, is strapped to a stretcher a few feet in front of them. He is in a medically induced coma with a ventilator tube regulating his breathing.

This most grievously wounded soldier involved in a fatal attack outside Kabul in late July returned to the U.S. this week, following two failed attempts to transport the blast victim for fear the flight would kill him.

The military flew his parents from their home in Salem, Ore., to this medical facility after he was wounded by an insurgent fighter who detonated an explosive-laden donkey next to a U.S. Army patrol. The Welches then accompanied their son for his return journey to Walter Reed Army hospital in Washington, his body riddled with shrapnel from the attack.

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My Comment: From MASH units during the Korean war to Afghanistan today .... new technologies have certainly changed how grievously wounded troops are taken care of.