By Scott Huddleston
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006 San Antonio Express-News
All Rights Reserved
First he saved lives in Korea, flying the wounded over mountainous terrain in a small H-13D helicopter, a two-seater with stretcher positions on each side.
It’s impossible to know how many more lives the late retired Army Maj. Gen. Spurgeon Neel has saved. His concept of flying ambulances now is used daily to help civilians and troops at war.
On Friday, about 200 people remembered “the Father of Aviation Medicine” at a dedication of the new $677,000 Spurgeon Neel Evacuation Pavilion, at Fort Sam Houston’s Army Medical Department Museum.
“His legacy remains evident today,” retired Army Brig. Gen. Charles Elia said in opening remarks at a 25-minute ceremony.
The pavilion, built with funds raised by the museum’s nonprofit foundation, has a display of an H-13D, along with a UH-1 “Huey” Neel helped design. The Huey helped save thousands of lives during the Vietnam War.
Early in his military service, Neel was awarded the Purple Heart after being injured in World War II. In 1954, after the Korean War, he became the Army’s first aviation medical officer. Some military leaders questioned his idea to use choppers to carry wounded soldiers.
“He just thought it was the right thing to do,” said Neel’s widow, Alice Neel.
In Vietnam, the Army formed “dustoff” units, named for a radio call sign, that evacuated around 380,000 patients.
In the 1970s, Neel advocated civilian air ambulance systems and oversaw formation of the 507th Medical Company, which provided Military Assistance to Safety and Traffic. By rescuing more than 5,000 civilians from car wrecks, floods and trauma cases in and around San Antonio, MAST further promoted air ambulance service.
Neel’s concept, put into practice and refined over time, “has saved countless lives,” said Al Vaiani III, who commanded the 507th from 1985-87 and now works with an emergency air provider based in Houston.
“This was the start of all that,” Vaiani added, standing near the Huey in the pavilion.
There now are about 800 private air ambulance providers nationwide. Neel died here in 2003.
His daughter, Dr. Leah Neel Zartarian, a family physician in Falmouth, Mass., said most people don’t know that medical aviation began with the military.
“The older I get, the more I realize what Dad accomplished,” she said.
Today, the Air Force, flying planes at 20,000 feet or above, can get troops wounded in the Middle East back to the States in three days. In Vietnam, it typically took more than 40 days.
Last year, the Air Force airlifted more than 3,800 sick and elderly people in response to hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
The service has flown well over 11,000 wounded personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon officials estimate the survival rate for wounded troops has risen from 75 percent in Vietnam to 90 percent today.
Maj. Gen. Russell Czerw, commander of the post and its Army Medical Department Center and School, said he viewed the pavilion as a tribute to everyone working in medical airlift services, especially Neel.
“He gave the concept a chance,” Czerw said.