at Aggie football games
provides care
photo by Dave Scott
Members of TAMECT check blood pressure
as part of their duties, which also includes
manning the stadium's first-aid stations
during football games.
Group
by Trade L. Holub
Battalion reporter
For the Texas A&M Emergen
cy Care Team (TAMECT), Aggie
football games mean doling out
Band-aids and aspirin, treating
heat stroke and heart attacks.
Matt Menger, special events
coordinator, said the majority of
calls the medics at the first aid
stations (on each deck of Kyle
Field) receive are heat related.
"When the weather is hot,
the people don't eat — they
drink Friday night, they don't
get enough sleep and don't eat
and so when they come to the
game they get sick," Menger
said. "The majority of the calls n
the weather is hot are from peo-
p\e tainting."
Heat related cases aren't the
only calls the medics.
"When it's cold, a lot of peo
ple come to the games with new
clothes on and wear open-toed
shoes and no hat," Menger said.
"They wear their open-toed
shoes and their nice neat dresses
— and they freeze to death.
"It's very important to wear
warm clothes to those games,"
he said. "These types of cases
increase when it is raining.
That's when it is really impor
tant to prepare by dressing
right."
Menger said the team also has
dealt with heart attack cases and
with women almost ready to go
into labor.
"The first game is a good ex
ample," Menger said. "We had
a lady that said she was due to
have her baby about a week be
fore the game. We couldn't be
lieve she was here. When we
told her the best thing we could
do was to call the ambulance to
take her to the hospital, she de
cided to just go home. Right
when her husband heard that,
he ran out of here like a shot to
get the car."
There are five air-conditioned
first aid stations at Kyle Field.
Dr. Claude Goswick, director of
health services, said these sta
tions are an improvement over
previous facilities.
"Before any of the stations
were built, the north endzone
station was in a 10-by-13 foot
room with one cot in it, whenev
er it rained the roof would leak,"
Goswick said. "If people were
on the cot and it was raining, we
would have to put plastic over
them so it wouldn't rain on
them."
Goswick said even after the
north endzone first aid station
was built there still were prob
lems.
"At the first game after we
moved to this new room, about
'73, all 12 chairs and 6 tables
were full, Goswick said. "It was
humid and very hot and people
were coming in a steady stream.
On top of all this, the air condi
tioner froze over. That was some
day.
"One time last year a woman
came here and she had di
amonds on all over. The air con
ditioner wasn't working and she
gave us $400 for a new one."
Menger said that although im
provements have been made, he
still would like more stations at
the stadium.
"I have dreams of having 6 or
7 stations here," Menger said. "I
would especially like to see one
more at the south end first deck
because that is where most of
the students come in. The main
problem with having one there
is location; there is really no
place to put one. It would be
nice, though."
Although the majority of the
care teams' duties at football
games are routine, they also
have disaster plans ready if
something catastrophic was to
happen.
"We have disaster plans for
many different situations that
could happen at one of the
games," Menger said. "Some of
our scenarios are a plane crash in
Kyle Field, a collapse of the sta
dium — God forbid if that ever
happened — and a train derail
ment with a dangerous chemical
aboard. We also have a plan for
food poisoning because that
could oe a huge problem if that
ever happened. It is very unlike
ly that anything like this would
ever happen, but we want to be
prepared for anything."
Being prepared for anything
is a goal of the health care team,
even if the preparation means
sacrificing personal pleasures.
One pleasure that members of
the team miss is watching the
football game.
"Most of the team stays in the
first aid stations during the
game waiting for calls," Menger
said. "Some of them might go
watch the band, but they'll run
back to the station right after
wards because things get real
busy after halftime. About the
only time they watch the game is
See EMT, page 12
Air controllers guide Aggie fans
by Jamie Hataway
Battalion reporter
One by one, planes lazily
dropped from the sky, bringing
droves of Aggie football fans.
From the control tower of Eas-
terwood Airport, air traffic con
trollers issued a nonstop flow of
directions and instructions. It
was game day at Texas A&M
and airport employees were
ready and waiting.
On Saturday, Oct. 6, five peo
ple were hustling in the control
tower, making sure each plane
buzzing around in the sky land
ed safely. One person scanned
the surrounding skies with
binoculars, some spoke their air
language on radios, while
another answered a beeping
transmitter and gave requested
weather reports.
"It's like this every time
there's a home game," air traffic
controller Scott Taylor says. "It's
a pain sometimes. They're im
patient and we're impatient and
there's nothing we can do."
But the controllers managed
to sort through the traffic. As the
Aggie flag waved from the tow
er top and Kyle Field loomed in
the hazy background, each
plane waiting to land glided
safely to the ground.
"One of the unfortunate
things in air traffic is that no
thing stops," Taylor says.
Stop it doesn't.
Dale Peterson, air traffic con
trol manager, says that between
9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., about
200 landings and take-offs had
taken place. If spread out over a
long period of time, he says,
that's not a heavy load, but
planes usually come in clusters.
Taylor agrees and says some
times 10 to 12 aircraft may be
waiting to leave. And just as
many may be waiting in the air,
which can result in a tricky job of
preventing collisions while
waiting to land.
As one plane headed toward
the blocked runway being used
for parking, a controller says
over the radio: "There should be
someone out there shortly to
provide fuel and transportation
for you."
People were busy down on
the ground too.
Easterwood's line service is
responsible for fueling the
planes and bringing passengers
from the parking area to the ter
minal. White vans scurried
around, gathering and deposit
ing anxious fans, most being
greeted by family or friends.
Fuel trucks went from plane
to plane preparing them for the
trip home, wherever that might
be.
E.A. Winter, a secretary in
the line service office, says that
on an average day, about 1,500
gallons of fuel will service the
visiting planes. On game days,
about 5,000 gallons is needed,
she says.
In the Flight Service office,
where weather reports are
checked on and flight plans are
made, three men leaned over
the counter in a bored manner.
All were pilots, two from San
Antonio, one from Corpus
Christi. Flight Service, along
with handling the weather, also
has to handle these guys.
"Boy it's been busy today,"
said one of the pilots.
"Oh, it's always like that on
game days," said the flight ser
vice attendent.
"Is that what's going on?" the
pilot asked. "Is there a football
game tonight?" Everyone
laughed.
"It looked like Houston over
on Texas Boulevard," the pilot
says.
All three pilots were able to
show a football ticket, but appa
rently they found the airport
more interesting than the game.
As game time arrived airport
employees heaved a sigh and
caught their breath. But it was
short-lived. At 5 p.m. it was a
madhouse again.
With a scattering of raindrops
spilling from overcast skies,
pilots frantically rushed around,
checking the weather and trying
to get a slot to take off.
Meanwhile, Carl Heliums, of
Uvalde, was looking for his
pilot. After several minutes of
"wondering where in the heck
he is," Heliums saw his pilot
casually stroll up.
"What's the weather look
like?" Heliums asked.
The pilot says, pointing to the
west: "Oh, it will be OK as soon
as we get past that bank over
there. We've got a 6 p.m. slot
out."
Heliums and two friends were
waiting with many others to get
a spot on a runway.
But similar to setting off a
stack of dominoes, air traffic
controllers were getting the
planes out, one after the other,
just as they had landed.
"I never saw so many planes
in my life," one lady says as she
watched the planes scatter in the
distance.
The crowds slowly dispersed,
most carrying a stack of Aggie
cups and excitedly commenting
on that day's victory.
The white vans began to slow
their hurried pace, as fewer peo
ple needed rides to their planes.
With one last glance to the
east, through the treetops, Kyle
Field is the Only thing in sight.