We have been learning about Sharon McCully, a 1957 Russell High School graduate, who trained as a nurse and volunteered for the Air Force in 1968. She served in Massachusetts before completing flight nurse training and deploying to Vietnam in May 1970, serving with the 903rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base.

The 903rd flew most of their missions in C-130 aircraft, configured to carry patient litters on floor-to-ceiling stanchions layering three, four, or even five patients per stanchion set. The Medevac crew for a C-130 included two nurses and two or three male medical technicians (medtechs). They would know in advance their destinations for pick-ups; estimated patient numbers; and some idea of their medical issues, so they could ensure the aircraft was configured for the patients and supplied for their care needs. Once ready, the medevac crew strapped into canvas seats for a likely six or seven hour mission that involved multiple stops.

Sharon described a typical medevac flight schedule.

“We started from Cam Ranh Bay and flew north, usually to Quang Tri, which was by the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam). Then we’d go down to Hue Phu Bai. We’d pick up patients and then it was on to Danang. Sometimes patients would get off there and/or we would pick up other patients. Sometimes we would drop them off at Cam Ranh Bay and sometimes we were taking them to Saigon. Then there’d be places south of Cam Ranh Bay, such as the big Army hospital at Long Binh, before we’d get to Saigon.”

Sharon explained the careful procedures for accepting patients and securing them for flight.

“They would come in blue, military ambulances. When they brought them from the local hospital, there would be a person in charge and they would meet with the nurse in charge of the flight. They would go over how many and what kind of patients we had and those that might need special care. Then we would board them accordingly. Sometimes we might pick up six, eight, or more people at one station. But there was always one person who would report to the receiving nurse and we would go from there.”

She emphasized the importance of the medevac crew working as a team.

“You had to work together otherwise a flight was never going to be successful. You had to work together to get the litters on the plane. Sometimes we had ambulatory patients to strap in or there were ones that needed more care, so you had to work together.”

Sometimes the nurses relied on their male teammates in unexpected ways.

“On our flights in-country when you had to go to the bathroom you had to wait until you got to a particular town. Sometimes there were men’s and women’s outdoor bathrooms. But once and a while you came to stations where there was only one. So, you’d take a man with you and have him stand guard while you go to the bathroom. The first time you do that, it is rather difficult, but you have to go, so what do you do?”

Sharon recalled caring for patients in-flight and then passing them to the receiving medical team at a destination. Some patients were of particular concern.

“We would keep them lower instead of having them above. Those that still had IVs, we would keep lower. We’d check the blood pressure for some. We had to watch for bleeding or people who had abdominal or other wounds from recent shootings. Then there were the ones with head injuries. Each of us had our own jobs, but as nurses, besides being a team leader, we cared for the patients. When we off-loaded them, we had a chart to indicate what we had done or what medication we had administered. We gave a report to the receiving nurse who was taking them to their hospital. If we brought some back to Cam Ranh Bay, there was a big, blue bus for the patient litters. The patients would be put on these buses to the hospital. They might be there overnight or a day or two before the big, MAC flights came to take them out of country.”

The medevac crew occasionally encountered in-flight emergencies with patients.

“We never had a death in flight the year that I was there, but emergencies? Yes, there were times when we had to use emergency measures, like if the patient was going into shock.”

The medevac crews rotated, so Sharon worked with many combinations of nurses and med-techs.

“You worked with all sorts of people and you got to know who you could best work with or which med-techs worked better. You learned which of the med-techs, if they didn’t like you and you stayed someplace overnight someplace, (Sharon laughed) could make your luggage go to Germany or elsewhere. I never had that problem, but there were a couple officers in our squadron who pushed their luck.”

Flight conditions were austere and very noisy.

“You got used to (the noise). Unfortunately, I didn’t wear enough earplugs while I was there and now I pay a price for that. During the monsoon season the planes were damp and cold, whereas, in the summer, they were hot. We dressed in fatigues and the big boots.”

Most medevac flights returned to Cam Ranh Bay the same evening and the flight and medevac crews had a required nine hours of crew rest before the next flight. Sharon usually had one and sometimes two days a week without a medevac flight.

©2024 William D. Palmer