SPECIAL FEATURE :: MILITARY LAB TECHS
Air force lab techs prove essential in Afghanistan withdrawal
By Military Health System Communications F
ollowing President Biden’s April 14, 2021 announcement of the with- drawal of U.S. troops from Afghani-
stan, Air Force Master Sergeant Grace Hodge, section chief of corps lab ser- vices for the 60th
Medical Group (which
operates the David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base in Fair- field, California) deployed to Bagram Air Base, just north of Kabul. Hodge was the lab team’s noncommissioned officer in charge, and accompanying her were two other lab techs from the 60th Medical Group: Senior Airman Jacob Washington and Staff Sergeant Rily Venesky. Between April and June 2021, Hodge,
Washington, and Venesky provided support to NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan as the United States provided airlift support during Operation Allies Refuge. This entailed COVID-19 support and trauma support, as needed, while closing down the medical treatment facility at Bagram Air Base. “We were doing a lot of COVID-19 testing for different NATO countries,” recalled Washington. “We were pro- cessing so many people from so many different countries, fulfilling individual
COVID testing requirements so [people] could safely fly back home into their country.” The team assisted more than 2,200 patients, including providing blood products; testing blood samples; and performing 1,400 COVID-19 tests, which resulted in a 99.8% COVID-free rate on the base. Following the closing of Bagram Air
Base, Hodge and her team forward deployed to the hospital near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. There, she and her colleagues continued providing COVID-19 support and pro- cessed COVID-19 tests, blood work, and other routine lab tests. 122,000 people, including U.S. military members, in- dividuals from NATO countries, and Afghan refugees were tested before their evacuation. Hodge also led the Blood Product Distribution Center for American efforts in Kabul and worked directly with the U.S. Central Com- mand’s Blood Transshipment Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar to ensure there were enough whole blood prod- ucts available to treat wounded patients and service members. Shortly after arriving in Kabul, Wash- ington forward deployed to the U.S.
“On the afternoon of August 26, 2021, confusion and chaos turned to horror... Suddenly, everything changed and our main goal shifted from COVID-19 support to blood and triage.”
-- Grace Hodge, Air Force Master Sergeant
military’s Blood Transshipment Center in Qatar. There, Washington and Hodge continued their collaboration from differ- ent locations. The Blood Transshipment Center delivers blood products such as whole blood, red blood cells, platelets, liquid plasma, fresh frozen plasma, COVID-19 convalescent plasma, and cryoprecipitate and is the only blood transshipment center in the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility that spans the Middle East, Northeast Africa,
From left to right: Air Force lab techs Senior Airman Jacob Washington, Staff Sargeant Rily Venesky, and Master Sargeant Grace Hodge. Photo Courtesy of Air Force Master Sgt. Grace Hodge
24 AUGUST 2022
MLO-ONLINE.COM
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