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TOPIC AREA: EQUIPMENT STANDARDIZATION / AE KITS, etc. 
 
SUBMITTED BY: HQ AFRES/SGXO 
 
ISSUE: War Readiness Materials (WRM) failed to support the aeromedical 
evacuation mission in the United Kingdom. 
 
OBSERVATION: Many critical WRM items issued to aeromedical evacuation forces 
deployed to the UK were not usable because they were not properly maintained in 
accordance with WRM guidelines nor were the items based on current aeromedical 
evacuation approved lists of required items. Personnel at each of the three 
deployment sites in the UK were required to inventory and remove expired or not 
required WRM items issued to them. Several thousand staff hours were expended by 
physicians, nurses, medical technicians, and medical supply personnel in this 
continuing inventory effort. Extensive amounts of items had to be ordered through 
medical supply channels to restock the outdated, obsolete, or otherwise 
non-usable medical supplies. One reason was because contingency kits were found 
to have built and stored for over ten years in uncontrolled climatic conditions. 
Another reason was that required item lists were changed over the years but the 
items in the contingency kits were not updated. Major critical items such as 
drugs used in cardiac emergencies had changed due to either new technology or new 
medical studies. Old drugs no longer recommended for therapy were contained in 
the contingency kits. The same critical emergency care related medical items 
required in the aeromedical evacuation system were also in scarce supply in the 
contingency hospitals causing keen competition for the same emergency items. 
Numerous pallet loads of medical supplies to support the aeromedical evacuation 
operation were shipped to Europe. In spite of this effort, only two medical kits 
were completed at RAF Upper Heyford in the 60 day period the Northern Region AECC 
was in operation. We were instructed to release the contingency kits back to the 
WRM program before we closed out aeromedical evacuation activities in the UK. The 
WRM program found in the UK to support aeromedical evacuation can be described 
accurately as a major medical disaster. 
 
IMPACT: An undetermined savings of money and manpower. 
 
RECOMMENDATION: It would have been much easier to have deployed aeromedical 
evacuation supply personnel to a central supply point to build 
contingency/medical kits based on a current listings. The completed kits could 
then be taken to deployment sites. This would have resulted in having no outdated 
drugs, no drugs expiring without use in a medical treatment facility that could 
not use the drugs, no improper storage difficulties, no wasted inventory time, no 
emergency order requests to overload the medical supply system, etc. 
 
 
 
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