Greetings to all our friends and family from FOB Salerno and 4th Platoon (now known as East Khowst Dustoff). We continue to appreciate all the support from the TF Desert Hawk Family here at Salerno and they have welcomed us and made us feel apart of the team. It is also always nice to have that Apache flying cover for us as we go in to pick up patients.

We have been doing a lot of training with our sister medical units here at Salerno to include live hoist training and load/unload training with the Combat Support Hospital, Charlie Med, and separate Infantry and Field Artillery units. It has been very valuable in building the relationships here at Salerno. We have now flown over 60 hours and taken 26 patients to higher levels of care here at the start of March. On 23 February the Dustoff 32 crew was recognized by the Air Force Surgeon General LTG Roudebush for our involvement in rescuing two individuals that were hit in a suicide
attack at the opening of a new hospital in the city of Khowst. I am extremely proud of the professionalism of my Soldiers as they execute our important mission of MEDEVAC.

Our 3rd crew should be arriving soon so the preparations are now complete for them to move in. Salerno has proven to be a pretty nice FOB with many amenities although we have had many thunderstorms and rain showers come through. It seems like it is raining about every other day, but we endure. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support while we are away!

CPT Paul Roley