JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii – An aircrew from the Hawaii Air National Guard’s 204th Airlift Squadron evacuated prematurely born twins from Korea to Maryland for medical care.
Parker and Laine McFall, were born February 17 at 30 weeks in Daegu’s Yeungnam Medical University Medical Center, the Republic of Korea, near their family’s U.S. Army home station. There are no neonatal care facilities at military hospitals in the region, so they were transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, nearly 7,000 miles away.
To safely make the journey from South Korea, Hawaii Air National Guard Airmen and a pilot from the 15th Wing stopped at Kadena Air Base, Japan, where a Neonatal Critical Care Air Transport Team and equipment was loaded onto their C-17 Loadmaster III.
The medically augmented airlift team and the McFall family converged at Osan Air Base in South Korea. Before boarding, the family was medically cleared and protected from the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
While airlift professionals are trained to carry out each mission with the same high-levels of focus, one loadmaster found himself to be more inspired than usual. Master Sgt. Brandon Sarceda, a father of two prematurely born twins, had lived through the same crisis. Sarceda said he hoped that sharing his personal story with the McFall family would help encourage them throughout the ordeal.
“Seeing how delicate this mission was, yeah, it really hit me when I spoke to the father, which reminded me of us back when,” said Sarceda. “But once again, we all pushed that to the side, did the job, carried and pushed some heavy equipment up and down that ramp.”
The C-17 and its precious cargo departed for Maryland March 29, with a fuel stop at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Within 16 and-a-half hours of leaving South Korea, the McFall family arrived at Joint Base Andrews, a short drive from the Walter Reed Medical Center, where long-term neonatal care awaited.
“I think for any aeromedical mission, we always want to help in any way possible,” said Justin Sato, 204th AS pilot. “I try to take it from a perspective of, ‘What if that was my family’ and that always motivates me to get the job done.”
While the fundamental aspects of training missions and real-world missions are more-or-less the same for aircrew, it’s moments that impact lives which make it all worthwhile.
“As far as execution goes,” said Sarceda, “this mission is no different than any other mission throughout my career; a little more ‘chicken-skin,’ yes, but we somehow manage to push aside all that, and finish strong. This is our job, zero tolerance for error, and this is what Pueos live for.”