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Flight Nurse Receives Distinguished Flying Cross for Actions During Kabul Withdrawal
Major Katie Lunning was recently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for her actions as a Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) nurse during the evacuation of Kabul in 2021.
When the Afghan withdrawal was announced, Lunning was the only CCATT nurse in the region. As a result, she assigned to every medical mission her unit performed.
“For two weeks, Lunning flew up to six missions a day to evacuate casualties from Hamid Karzai International Airport. Up to 36 times per day, she would trek three blocks pushing a stretcher through Taliban-controlled city streets to the Kabul Coalition Hospital.”
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On Aug. 26, Lunning was ending her shift when she received word a suicide bomber had attacked the Kabul airport causing hundreds of deaths and injuries.
With some small arms fire going on, and the threat of a second suicide bomber lurking, Lunning performed patient triage and intake for 22 people before boarding an eight-hour evacuation flight to Landstuhl, Germany. During this flight, she was credited with saving multiple lives. Including that of an 18-month old patient despite having “zero pediatric supplies.” Furthermore, she performed a “lifesaving in-flight massive blood resuscitation of a post-operative patient.”
A Call to Serve
To add to the story, Lunning took the deployment on a mere three week notice. She jumped at the opportunity to serve with the 379th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after a previously selected nurse had to withdraw. At the time, she was an intensive care unit nurse manager at an Iowa VA hospital.
Maj. Lunning bears the distinction of being the first Air National Guard flight nurse to be presented the Distinguished Flying Cross.
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U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, fastens the Distinguished Flying Cross onto Maj. Katie Lunning’s uniform St. Paul, Minn., Jan. 7, 2023 (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Amy Lovgren)
