Transportation Isolation System
The Transportation Isolation System, or TIS, is an infectious disease containment unit developed by the Department of Defense to protect medical personnel and flight crews from contagions while enabling full in-flight medical care. Originally designed to safely evacuate patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in western Africa, the TIS’ first operational use was to transport three COVID-19 infected DoD personnel from Afghanistan to Ramstein Air Base in Germany on April 10, 2020. The TIS contains up to three separate compartments built on standard 463L aircraft pallets for easy loading onto C-17 or C-130H and J model aircraft. The entire structure is wrapped in a thick, puncture-resistant plastic and includes high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration systems to ensure protection from both airborne and non-airborne contagions. After each mission all disposable elements were removed and destroyed and the entire TIS was thoroughly decontaminated.
TIS Components
Antechamber: The first of the TIS’ compartments is called the antechamber. This is where medical personnel safely put on and took off personal protective equipment (PPE), including a Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR).
Isolation Modules: A TIS has either one or two isolation modules depending on the number of patients. Each module can accommodate one littered patient or two ambulatory patients and each also contains 2 portable flush toilets. After putting on their PPE and PAPR in the ante chamber, medical personnel could enter an isolation module to attend to patients.
Communication: Communicating with patients in isolation modules was challenging. Radio headsets, normally worn to communicate aboard noisy C-17s and C-130s, could not be sufficiently decontaminated as medical personnel entered and exited the TIS. Instead, both patients and staff used whiteboards and even hand signals to send simple messages and instructions.
Major Shane Patterson uniform
The occupational camouflage pattern (OCP) 2-piece flight duty uniform on display was worn by Maj. Shane Patterson, an infectious diseases physician. Patterson wore the uniform while deployed to Ramstein Air Base from March to October 2020.
On April 10, 2020, Patterson was part of the 16 person force package on Reach 725, an aeromedical evacuation (AE) mission to evacuate three COVID-19 positive US government contractors from Afghanistan. While Patterson was a 17-year veteran, the Ramstein deployment and Reach 725 were his first operational flying missions.
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