Dust off DPR/TV/899

Dustoff helicopters the aerial ambulances of the Vietnam war have made the Vietnam conflict the safest war ever for the injured soldier. Only seconds after a soldier is wounded in battle or has triggered a Viet Cong booby trap, Dustoff will be in the air, taking off from the helipad at Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy province. A wounded soldier in the field can be delivered outside the door of an operating theatre within 10 or 15 minutes of injury. Rarely does it take Dustoff longer than 20 or 25 minutes, and if it does the helicopter is crewed by an expert medical corpsman who can administer life saving first aid before handing the soldier over to waiting surgeons at the 1st Field Hospital in Vung Tau or the 8th Field Ambulance in Nui Dat. Dustoff air evacuations for Australian troops operating in Phuoc Tuy province is supplied by the United States 45th Aero Medical Evacuation Company, backed up 24 hours a day and seven days a week by helicopters from 9 Squadron RAAF. It is the proud claim of the expert pilots and crewmen of these life-line `choppers that they supply an ambulance service that is quicker and smoother than many road ambulance services in Australia. While they sometimes have to contend with a 'hot' Dustoff with Viet Cong in close contact, they are not troubled by the crawling traffic jams or the lack of communications of some ambulance districts in Australia. Only about half a percent of seriously wounded soldiers who reach a hospital in Vietnam subsequently die of wounds. This compares with 20 percent in World War 1, eight percent in World War 2 and three percent in Korea. Doctors claim that the knowledge that they have Dustoff if they are injured is one of the biggest factors influencing the morale of the Australian soldier in Vietnam. The knowledge that Dustoff is on the way to pick him up can lesson the effects of shock on a wounded soldier. Soldiers in Vietnam are trained in primary first aid, to start the vital chain of immediate medical attention that is assured to all casualties on the Vietnam battlefield.