Photos: U.S. medevac crews help ailing Afghans

An armed escort chopper trails a Black Hawk medevac helicopter flying to pick up an injured Afghan soldier in Oruzgan province. Patients are flown to a U.S. military clinic at the base in Tarin Kowt, or farther south to a hospital in Kandahar. Armed escorts are necessary to fend of Taliban attacks. A medevac helicopter was shot down June 9 in neighboring Helmand province.

An armed escort chopper trails a Black Hawk medevac helicopter flying to pick up an injured Afghan soldier in Oruzgan province. Patients are flown to a U.S. military clinic at the base in Tarin Kowt, or farther south to a hospital in Kandahar. Armed escorts are necessary to fend of Taliban attacks. A medevac helicopter was shot down June 9 in neighboring Helmand province.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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When possible, medevac crews flight to the aid of Afghan civilians, as part of a strategy to win hearts and minds.

Maliza, Afghanistan

Suffering from chest pains, village elder Shabarat Sageed, center, is escorted onto a medevac helicopter in southern Afghanistan by a crew with the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Oruzgan, Afghanistan

A medic tends to Shabarat Sageed, center, who is suffering from chest pains. He was flown to the U.S. military base in Tarin Kowt for treatment. During a recent two-day span, the platoon received half-a-dozen “nine lines,” the emergency radio calls that list nine critical nuggets of information — location, severity of injury, type of patient, and so on.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Medevac mission in Afghanistan

Shabarat Sageed, probably flying for the first time, grips the window of the medevac helicopter as he is flown to a military clinic for treatment. With no conventional combat troops at the base, the medevac unit has been helping civilians, with about 70% of its unit’s 130 missions treating Afghan civilians or security forces.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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