Veteran Salute: Medevacking across Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Serving primarily as a Medevac Pilot with Black Hawk deployments across Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, Steve Hood served his country for over 30 years.

At the Aviation Support Facility in Topeka, Hood worked in the Operations Building as a Flight Operations Specialist, Instructor Pilot, Safety Officer and Standardization Instructor Pilot. His service consisted of state missions across Kansas for nearly 20 years, until conflict overseas mobilized his part of the 36th CAB.

“It was the first full National Guard Aviation Brigade to ever deploy, so it was kind of a big deal," Hood said. "We were in Iraq for over a year, predominantly during the surge. Saw a lot of time flying over Iraq, and mostly over Baghdad.”

Hood served in the Medevac role for three of his four deployments, with his first of two tours to Iraq putting him in the Assault Pilot position.

“I enjoyed the assault mission, I did a few air assaults while I was in Iraq on my first tour, but the bulk of that was what we called ring routes," Hood said. "We would pick up troops and we would fly them place to place, so they didn’t have to be on the roads getting hit with IED’s, and so it was kind of monotonous. I liked the medevac mission because you’re actually saving people’s lives. It’s a good story when you’ve picked somebody up, you’ve taken them to the cache, you’ve dropped them off, and then you hear hey he lived. That’s always a positive, hey, I saved a life.”

Providing protection for others took many different forms over his three decades in the service.

“Swapping over from OIF to Operation New Dawn, we provided the coverage for all the people that were leaving," He said. "So when they took all the infantry out, we covered that move, well then we got left behind. So the insurgents said ‘oh, well the combat forces are gone’. We started getting rocketed and mortared all the time, again surprisingly we didn’t take any hits.”

Hood takes a lot of pride in his service as a Medevac Pilot and Safety Officer.

“My primary goal was to make sure that the people that were with me, came home with me," Hood said. "It became a very tight knit group, and to this day I still maintain contact with a lot of the guys I flew with. I would do it again because I enjoyed the people I was with, I enjoyed the mission, I enjoyed rescuing people and saving lives, that was a great part of it. Living in the desert heat wasn’t so much fun, but it’s still an experience that other people can’t relate to.” 

Finishing his service in 2017, Hood stays plenty busy nowadays - volunteering at the National Guard Museum, at his local church, and even fosters Beagles.

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