Minuteman Minute | Katie Lunning

When a suicide bomber struck, Capt. Katie Lunning’s Critical Care Air Transport Team responded to save 22 lives. For her courage, she became the first Air National Guard nurse to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Hi, I’m Will Roulett, director of the National Guard Memorial Museum here in D.C., and this is your Minuteman Minute! This uniform was worn by Capt. Katie Lunning on Aug. 26, 2021, when she responded to the suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 13 Americans and over 150 Afghans. In 2021, Lunning was a critical care nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital and the Nurse on a Critical Care Air Transport Team in the 133rd Medical Group of the Minnesota Air National Guard. She volunteered for a short-notice deployment in the summer of 2021. Before the suicide bombing, Lunning made several trips to Afghanistan to evacuate patients, but the situation was increasingly unsafe as U.S. forces withdrew, desperate civilians flooded the airport, and the Taliban regained control. Once on the ground, her team had to walk, without escort, to a small hospital to retrieve one patient at a time. After the bombing, Lunning arrived to an even more chaotic scene. The overwhelming number of casualties required her team, supported by additional medical personnel, to transport 22 critical patients, far more than the team’s typical patient capacity of three. The situation also required them to transport patients normally considered not stable enough for flight, including a Marine with an open chest and an 18-month-old baby with a brain injury. Despite challenges, Lunning’s team safely delivered their patients to the hospital in Germany after an 8-hour flight. For her courage that day, Capt. Lunning was the first Air National Guard nurse to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross. Come see this – and a whole lot more – at the National Guard Memorial Museum. I’m Will Roulett, and that’s been your Minuteman Minute, brought to you by the National Guard Educational Foundation.