The detachment was activated by General Order Number 10, Headquarters, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, dated 6 April 1953, under TO&E 8–500, Cell: RA, 25 August 1952.

[10] From 28 June through 4 July 1954, all of the aircraft assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center, including those of the 57th and 274th under Hammett's command, were deployed to support flood relief efforts along the Rio Grande River near Langtry, Texas, caused by Hurricane Agnes.

[13] In October 1957, after hearing rumors all summer, the 57th received a message alerting the unit for a permanent change of station move to Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.

[13] On 23 March 1960 at 0230 hours the detachment received a call to proceed to Elkins, West Virginia to help search for a downed Air Force plane, Two H-19s left at 0600 that morning.

Close coordination with field maintenance units at the locations where aircraft were stationed through the headquarters section at Tan Son Nhut was a dominant factor in maintaining this achievement.

The remaining three air ambulances and personnel were attached to the 45th Transportation Battalion at Tan Son Nhut providing aeromedical evacuation support within the III and IV Corps areas.

"[24] An example of the poor quality of VNAF medical evacuation occurred in late October 1963, when the ARVN 2d Battalion, 14th Regiment, conducted Operation LONG HUU II near O Lac in the Delta.

[24] Kelly faced one big problem when he arrived: the helicopters that the 57th had received the year before were showing signs of age and use, and Brigadier General Joseph Stilwell Jr., the Support Group commander, could find no new aircraft for the detachment.

As the Dustoff ship drew near the landing zone, which was plainly marked by the burning A1-E, the pilot of another nearby Al-E radioed that he had already knocked out the Viet Cong machine guns.

While Brady's Dustoff ship circled out of range of enemy ground fire, the transport helicopters landed and the troops moved out into a wooded area heavily defended by the Viet Cong.

In Phan Thiet, while he was assessing the damage to his aircraft, an American adviser asked him if he would take ammunition back to the embattled ARVN unit when he returned for the next load of wounded.

When Support Command began to pressure the 57th to place removable red crosses on the aircraft and begin accepting general purpose missions, Kelly stepped up unit operations.

Knowing that removable red crosses had already been placed on transport and assault helicopters in the north, Kelly told his men that the 57th must prove its worth-and by implication the value of dedicated medical helicopters-beyond any shadow of doubt.

As dusk came, he and his crew would depart Soc Trang and head southwest for the marshes and Bac Lieu, home of a team from the 73d Aviation Company and detachments from two signal units, then further south to Ca Mau, an old haunt of the Viet Minh, whom the French had never been able to dislodge from its forested swamps.

The Viet Cong showed their indifference to the red crosses on the aircraft by trying to destroy it with small arms, automatic weapons, and mortars, even while the medical corpsman and crew chief loaded the patients.

In the spring of 1964 the Aviation Branch tried to have new Medical Service Corps pilots assigned to nonmedical helicopter units in Vietnam, assuming that they would benefit more from combat training than from Dustoff flying.

[25] Early in the month of December unit aircraft and crews became engaged in airmobile operation and evacuation missions in the Bình Giã area which was southeast of Saigon.

This was considered essential in combat flying and especially so in Vietnam in order that one aviator would be available to take control of the aircraft in the event the other was hit by enemy fire and was not a requirement in the continental United States when the UH-1 was fielded.

A proposed TOE Unit Change Request would be submitted upon reorganization which would increase the total number of authorized aviators to fourteen, providing for a full complement of medical evacuation pilots plus a commander and operations officer.

[22] On 15 February 1969 the detachment relocated from Long Binh Post to Lai Khe, replacing the 4th Flight Platoon, 45th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) due to increased mission requirements in that area.

From Lai Khe, it continued throughout the year to support elements of the 1st Infantry Division, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Forces operating in the area.

[29] From an operational standpoint the 57th had to coordinate and tactfully suggest and push for VNAF higher command support for the Vietnamese Dustoff effort in Military Region IV.

As a result of this dedicated training the VNAF Dustoff crews were able to assume their responsibility for providing aeromedical evacuation assistance and support for the ARVN divisions in MR IV well ahead of a planned USARV Vietnamization schedule, thereby allowing the 57th Medical Detachment to redeploy to Long Binh Dustoff in time to offer additional strategic support to the allied forces embattled in the Easter Offensive in the Northwest part of Military Region III.

During this same period of 100% readiness posture, a requirement was placed on the detachment for another ship and crew to remain on a three-minute alert at the heliport for Vice President Agnew's visit to Saigon.

[31] Actual events A great influx of personnel and the majority of the redeploying/inactivating units closing ahead of schedule caused initial planning changes to be made shortly after X-day.

[31] Actual events As directed in Operation Thunderbolt the appropriate equipment was transferred to ARVN and RVNAF forces prior to X-Day and hand receipted back to the detachment until the requirement for them no longer existed.

[36] August and September 1999 proved to be very busy deploying the FSMT (-) to Kuwait, fielding the ASIP Radio systems, and supporting an 82d Airborne Division Joint Readiness Training Center rotation.

[36] Hurricane relief efforts in 1999 involved the entire company as the unit flew 58 hours utilizing all available aircrews to include those Battalion staff members on flight status.

[36] Within days of the hurricane relief operations ending, the unit again sent an FSMT in support of the 82d Airborne Division to the Joint Readiness Training Center that consumed most of the month of October.

On 26 January 2007, as part of a reengineering of Army aviation, the 57th Medical Detachment conducted an inactivation ceremony at its hangar at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, named for Major Charles L. Kelly.