Hawaii Air Guard Treated Reno Air Crash Victims
Their food tent was transformed into a triage area.
HONOLULU --
A relatively relaxing assignment for a couple of dozen members of Hawaii's Air National Guard turned into an emergency trauma response in Nevada on Friday.
The Hawaii Air Guard members were displaying one of their C-17 aircraft at the air show in Reno, Nevada Friday afternoon when one of the racing planes crashed, killing 10 people and injuring dozens of others.
The plane crashed right into spectators at the Reno air show Friday and Hawaii Air Guard members were just a few yards away from the impact site.
Chief Master Sgt. Alan Ogata, the unit's senior enlisted man, got emotional as he described how they helped the wounded.
"The Hawaii Air Guardsmen out there did their jobs with professionalism, compassion and aloha," Ogata said Monday night, minutes after he and other Hawaii guard members arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam about their C-17 jet.
The Hawaii guard unit had a tent in which they were preparing luau food for other military units at the air show. After the crash, their tent instantly transformed into a triage center.
"We took care of a woman who lost her husband and was in shock and there was other people in shock who we were treating. And minor injuries folks and folks who couldn't find their loved ones," Ogata said.
Lt. Jason Lilly is one of the C-17's pilots.
"We started bringing people in, making sure that they were safe, started giving them the food that we had prepared for the day. Giving them clothing, blankets, talking to them for hours, just to make them feel comforted," Lilly said.
Col. Richard Ando, Jr., the Hawaii unit's doctor is an allergist with a practice at Kuakini Medical Center. He jumped in along with a nurse and EMT from the Hawaii unit to begin treating the injured.
"It was quite a quick response, both civilian and military, to go in and triage patients, see who's critically injured and not-so-critically injured and sort that out because the most critically injured folks have to be taken care of immediately," Ando said.
Ando also treated a Hawaii guardsman who received minor injuries in the crash. The injured guardsman spent time at a Reno hospital and had some shrapnel wounds, according to a Hawaii Air National Guard spokesman. The wounded man, described as a longtime guard member, returned to Honolulu Monday night. Further details about his identity and injury were not released.
Ando said he has not seen duty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so he hasn’t dealt with mass casualty events until now.
"It's a shock, but then that's what we train for. National guardsmen citizen soldier we train for these sort of emergencies," Ando said.
Lilly was grateful to see his wife and baby again and relieved to fly the unit’s plane home after such a shocking experience.
"I can't even put into words what we saw there. And we're glad to be home. Proud that we're in the guard and everyone else on the plane is safe and fine," Lilly said.
The Hawaii guard unit stayed at the scene for about eight hours after the crash, helping to secure the site, treating the wounded, and feeding the injured and first responders their luau food, working until midnight Friday on a mission they will never forget.
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