ASTS returns from 120-day deployment in time for holidays

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stephen Razo
  • 944th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  For members of the 944th Aeromedical Staging Squadron, the joy of coming home from a 120-day deployment to Germany in time for Christmas carried with it a special significance. 

Having treated and prepared hundreds of wounded troops for transport home, they could now experience the joy those grateful hundreds must have felt as they made their way home. 

“This was a great learning experience for our troops who had not deployed before,”
said Maj. Cookie Avvampato, 944th ASTS. “For me, I learned a lot about the Air Force because I was able to participate in a different part of the patient process.” 

According to Major Avvampato, a previous ASTS deployment to Iraq in 2004 involved treating and preparing patients for transport to facilities such as the 435th Contingency Air Staging Facility at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. This deployment to the 435th gave 944th ASTS personnel the opportunity to be the final stop for patients on their way home.
“It was a great experience for us to participate on the other end of the patient process,” Major Avvampato said. “Everyone learned a lot about the system and how our training and presence makes a big difference.” 

The 944th ASTS personnel made up 40 percent of the total force contingent at the 435th Contingency Air Staging Facility, which includes 26 permanently-assigned
Airmen. 

“I was extremely pleased to be able to meet our ASTS and MDS members as they returned from a successful AEF deployment to Ramstein,” said Col. Derek Rydholm, 944th Fighter Wing commander. “The work that they did is not only extremely
important to our efforts in advancing a stable government in Iraq but will most likely have a lasting impact on our members’ perspective of things in the future.” 

According to Ramstein officials, more than 29,000 patients have processed through the facility since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.