Reservists man contingency hospital Published Dec. 27, 2005 By Senior Airman Paul Haley 446th Airlift Wing McChord Air Force Base, Wash. -- Seventy-one Airmen from the 446th Aeromedical Staging Squadron are deploying to Southwest Asia to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The deployment kicked off with the first Airmen leaving Christmas Day 2005, with the rest of the group following in January. The primary purpose of the squadron’s deployment will be to man the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility at Balad Air Base, Iraq. “The CASF provides medical care to patients entering, transiting and coming from aeromedical evacuation missions,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Dundon, executive officer for the 446th ASTS. Additionally, members of the ASTS will fill roles on a critical care aeromedical transportation team, as mental-health professionals and as emergency medical technicians in Balad and other areas in Southwest Asia, he said. The group from McChord is the largest medical group to deploy for an Air Expeditionary Force rotation composed entirely of volunteers. The compassionate nature of people in the 446th ASTS led to the record-setting all-volunteer group, said Lt. Col. Karen Winter, chief nurse for the deployment. “Being a medical unit, the people are very caring,” she said. “Six of our nurses have already been deployed to Balad and volunteered to go back.” “My kids don’t understand it, but I feel like this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing,” said the mother of two grown children. “It’s just such a positive feeling to help people who have been injured. Our motto is, ‘To comfort and transport,’ and that’s really what we do.”