Since their deployment to Fort Hood in February the aircraft and crews of Winder’s 148th Air Ambulance Company have flown more than 100 Medevac and search- and- rescue missions at Hood, Fort Bliss, Fort Sill and Fort Carson.

Flying its missions out of Fort Hood Army Airfield, the 148th will be deployed for up to a year. It’s replacing the post’s active-duty Black Hawk air ambulance company, which is on duty in the Middle East.

Around the clock, at least one of the unit’s UH1-N "Huey" helicopters and flight crew, including paramedics, are on-call to respond to anything from training mishaps motor vehicle accidents - both on and off-post.

"Every mission has its own unique set of circumstances," said Sgt. Kevin Wells, a flight paramedic who works as in the anesthesiology department at the University of Georgia’s Veterinary College in Athens. "You can’t come away from one and be touched by it in some way."

One such assignment involved a 10-year-old boy who, in mid-May, had been struck by a pickup truck while walking, he said. "From what I understood, the impact was so bad that Killeen firefighters had to remove the child from the truck’s front grill," Wells said. He then recounted how he and his crew flew a physician from Hood’s Darnell Army Medical Center to Scott and White Medical Center in Temple, Texas, 18 nautical miles from the post. The child, who suffered from severe injuries to his legs abdomen and head, had to have help breathing and blood transfusions during the trip.

Wells recalled that he and the doctor took the boy straight to surgery after arriving at Scott and White, and that the 10-year-old underwent five operations over a 24-hour period.

"It runs through your mind that you hope and pray you’ve done all you can to give the patient every chance to make it through," he said in a solemn voice. "I know the doctor and I did everything humanly possible for our patient, but I also knew it would be up to the surgical team and God to pull him through."

Wells said he recently heard from the child’s mother, who thanked him for helping her son, and told him her son is doing well but has a long road to recovery. He also said the woman told him the boy may lose one of his legs. "Even if that happens, at least he’s alive, and I hope his mom is reminding him how lucky he is and how the Lord must be looking out for him," Wells added.