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‘Almost impossible mission’:19 hours non-stop flight to save a US soldiers life

Taliban has stepped up their offensive after US president Trump scrapped the negotiation efforts of Afghan and Taliban leaders at Camp David earlier this month. This week alone three major suicide bombings killed dozens of people, including 26 at a campaign rally for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Reportedly at least seventeen US soldiers have been killed so far this year and more than hundred are wounded severely. One of them a special operations soldier — lost his right arm and leg last month after a grenade exploded during close-quarters combat.

Three military aircraft, 18 medical personnel, 24,000 gallons of fuel and 26 gallons of blood was spent to save the life of this critically wounded soldier. The almost ‘impossible mission’ required two nighttime mid-air refuelings, one over Europe and the other over Maine, with KC-135s from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, providing the fuel. The soldier received intensive care from the medical team on-board the aircraft.

Nineteen hours after taking off from Afghanistan, the C-17 landed in San Antonio to transport the soldier to Brooke Army Medical Center. The Air Force flight crew had completed their mission without breaking the sacred oath among U.S. forces in combat. The soldier is still reportedly in critical condition.

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