Past experience contributes to the future

  • Published
  • By Maj David Borchardt
  • 445th Airlift Wing
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio --  Lt Col (Dr.) Herb Loyd, a member of the 445th Aeromedical Staging Squadron was focused on helping fight the War on Terror in a different way than most flight surgeons when he re-joined the Air Force Reserve in 2003. 

Since then, he has been working with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on developing new ways to transport patients on board aircraft. He'll deploy if needed, but finds his current project suits the Air Force's needs and his talents just fine. 

"I don't feel the pressure other people have to deploy," he said. "Vietnam was my war." 

During his time flying out of Udorn Royal Thai Airbase in 1969 and 1970, Loyd had many experiences that would shape his 32-year medical career and ultimately led him back to the Air Force Reserve. 

The most dramatic was ejecting from his crippled F-4 Phantom while serving as a Fast Forward Air Controller over the Ban Ban Valley on April 6, 1970. 

"It's one of those stories where we used all our nine lives," he said. As a member of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 436th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Loyd was in the back seat of his F-4 when a round from a 37 mm North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun found its mark. 

"It came in under my seat and blew the right wing off," he said. Loyd's first thoughts were to fly the plane as far south as possible. "I remember the aircraft standing on its tip (nose in the air). It was clear within seconds we weren't going anywhere." 

Loyd and his pilot parachuted under small arms fire into the jungle. As he came down the roar of the North Vietnamese soldiers he said sounded "like a football game." Fortunately, another aircraft was able to drop ordinance forward of Loyd's position and keep the enemy away. Loyd and his pilot spent the night in the jungle and were picked up the next afternoon. 

Today, he uses his experience to aid the AFRL project to find more efficient ways to move patients that are more user- friendly to the injured, medical personnel and aircrews. "It gives me a perspective I can draw on and utilize," he said. 

Among the innovations that helped protect him on that day in 1970, was a flight suit made of a new material called Nomex. Loyd credits it with significantly reducing the area on his body receiving second and third degree burns when he ejected. According to Loyd, the Nomex had been developed in response to the need to counter the serious burns aircrews were receiving during the Vietnam War. 

That same desire to conceive better ways of doing business and to serve led him to search for an organization that could best use his talents in 2001. He considered the Peace Corps, Doctors Without Borders and several other organizations. He also entertained re-joining the Air Force Reserve, an organization he left after his medical career prevented him from fully contributing. 

"When 9/11 occurred, I thought, 'why not the military?'" Loyd said. "I thought, there's not much a 56 year-old can do; I expected a desk and (to be giving) physicals." According to Loyd, the recruiter had other ideas and found a place which ultimately led to his current project. 

Loyd seeks no glory for the Air Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart he received for his missions over Southeast Asia. He's just content that his experience can be put to use to improve processes and equipment in the Air Force today. 

"It engenders in me the fact that you can use that experience to pass on, to try to encourage younger people to enable themselves and make commitments to be involved in the reserves and military." He's proud "not because I've deployed, but I got to be part of a process that's very intriguing."