86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron
military unit

The 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron (86 AES) is a unit of the United States Air Force. It is part of the 86th Operations Group, 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It is a component of Third Air Force and United States Air Forces Europe.
The 86 AES provides operational aeromedical evacuation for U.S. troops in the United States European Command and United States Africa Command areas of responsibility using, primarily, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, Gates Learjet C-21A and Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft.
The squadron was constituted as the 86 Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron on 27 May 1994, and activated on 16 August 1994.
The unit is composed of Flight Nurses, Medical Service Corps officers and Aeromedical Evacuation Technicians, as well as medical administration and logistics technicians.
History
Major operations the squadron has participated in include:
Operation Enduring Freedom
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Operation Unified Protector
Operation Unified Response
Operation Joint Endeavor
Operation Allied Force
The 86 AES provided AE coverage for deployed US and NATO forces. This included the airlift of former prisoners of war Specialist Steven Gonzales and Staff Sergeants Christopher Stone and Andrew Ramirez, to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, from Zagreb, Croatia. They had been captured by Serbian forces while patrolling in the Republic of Macedonia, during Operation Allied Force.
Operation Deliberate Force
Bombing of USS Cole
On October 12, 2000, crew from the 86 Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and CCATT team members from Landstuhl Regional Medical launched on C-9 Nightingales from the 75th Airlift Squadron to Djibouti and Yemen.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron” is military unit. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through 86th, Aeromedical and Evacuation, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “military unit” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16207392. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1994 and 2000.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron primary sources, 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron archive and 86th research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.