age in 1961 with the addition of the C-135 transport which was a military version of the 707 airliner; it could carry 44 litters and fly more than 30% faster than piston engine aircraft. Air Evac assets were used for humanitarian missions out of Lebanon and Hungary during the 1950s. The US entry into Vietnam began a slow buildup of AE assets in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, at the height of the war intratheater missions were flown using helicopters and older C-47 and C-54 aircraft, retrograde missions to Japan, The Philippines were flown using the newer C-141 transport which could carry up to 80 litters or a mix of 125 litter and ambulatory on non-stop routes to Alaska, California and the east coast. During the Vietnam War more than half a million patients were transported. An extensive peacetime network of air evacuation was established using C-9 aircraft based at Scott AFB, Illinois, Rhein-Main AB, Germany and Clark AB, PI augmented by older prop transports and more recently the C-141 on long-distance routes to and from the mainland US. During Operation Desert Storm thousands of wounded and injured were transported from Southwest Asia, while air evac assets were also used in Somalia, the Balkans and also for moving patients in the US during disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. The United States Air Force (USAF) has several specialized medical transportation units. Within the U.S. Air Force, AE is coordinated by Air Mobility Command located at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. There are four active-duty AE squadrons (AES) in the USAF, but the 375th AES, Scott AFB, and the 43d AES, Pope AFB, North Carolina, are the only two located within the continental United States. The European Theater (USAFE) is served by the 86th AES at Ramstein AB, Germany, while the Pacific Theater (PACAF) is served by the 18th AES at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. The majority of AE Squadrons are made up of Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units. Also, AMC Air Operations Squadron Detachment 4 [AMCAOS Det 4] operates out of Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, instructing Aeromedical Evacuation Initial Qualification (AEIQ) course for all Active Duty and ANG, some Air Force Reserve Flight Nurses and Aeromedical Evacuation Technicians. All AE units are primarily manned by personnel from the Air Force Medical Service, but are usually aligned under an Operations Group instead of a Medical Group. Aeromedical evacuation usually involves