Emergency Medical Evacuation
From their primitive World War I introduction to their integral function in the most rugged parts of the modern world, countless lives have been saved in dramatic and swift fashion by the air ambulance. Forever changing the face of emergency medical services, the mighty air ambulance is used to rescue stranded victims in the most remote mountain and forest regions, from the depths of canyons, and from the unwavering clutches of the sea. The air ambulance also conducts service as a speedy and efficient transporter for the critically wounded; from the front lines of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 to yesterday's suburban motor vehicle accident, dedicated machinery and personnel combine with the latest in technology and medicine to make otherwise impossibly quick rescues a common place miracle. Thousands of lives are saved each year in The United States alone by the quick evacuation and transport efforts of civilian emergency medical services; staggering when coupled with several hundred more saved annually by publicly and privately-operated air ambulance services in environs ranging from the rough and windy coast of Alaska to the snowy peaks of Mount Shasta to the dark maze-like switchbacks of The Grand Canyon. Overseas, the medical air-born specialists of countries ranging from Australia to Germany to Iraq have brought the battle-wounded from the trenches of warfare to the safe surroundings of a hospital. Our lives have been impacted in critically important ways by air ambulances and their emergency medical professionals; individuals and machines that have made it their job to be there for us when others could not.