A 9-line medevac is a standardized radio request format used by military personnel to call for medical evacuation of wounded or injured people from the field. It consists of nine lines of information, transmitted in a specific order, that tell the evacuation crew everything they need: where to go, how many patients to expect, how urgently they’re needed, and what conditions they’ll face on arrival. The format is used across NATO forces and is governed by the U.S. Army’s ATP 4-02.2, which aligns with NATO STANAG 2087.
What Each Line Communicates
The nine lines are always transmitted in the same order so that crews can process the information quickly under pressure, even over a broken radio connection. Here’s what each line covers:
- Line 1: Pickup location. Grid coordinates for the exact spot where the helicopter or vehicle should land.
- Line 2: Radio frequency and call sign. How the evacuation crew contacts the person on the ground at the pickup site.
- Line 3: Number of patients by priority. How many casualties need evacuation, grouped by how urgently they need to move (more on this below).
- Line 4: Special equipment needed. Anything the crew should bring that isn’t standard, such as a ventilator, hoist, or extraction gear.
- Line 5: Number of patients by type. Whether patients are on litters (stretchers) or can walk, which determines how many the aircraft can carry.
- Line 6: Security at the pickup site (wartime) or wound details (peacetime). In combat, this tells the crew whether enemy forces are nearby and whether they need an armed escort. In peacetime operations, it instead describes the type of injury, such as gunshot wound or blast injury, along with bleeding severity and blood type if known.
- Line 7: Method of marking the pickup site. How the ground team will signal the crew, using smoke, flares, panels, or other markers.
- Line 8: Patient nationality and status. Whether the patient is U.S. military, coalition, civilian, or a prisoner of war. This affects where they can be transported.
- Line 9: CBRN contamination (wartime) or terrain description (peacetime). In combat, the caller reports any chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear hazards at the site. In peacetime, this line describes terrain features around the landing zone, like ridges, towers, or bodies of water.
How Priority Categories Work
Line 3 is arguably the most consequential line in the request because it determines how fast the aircraft launches. Patients are sorted into four evacuation categories, each with a maximum time window:
- Urgent or Urgent Surgical: The patient will lose life or limb without evacuation within 2 hours. “Urgent Surgical” means the same level of severity, but the patient specifically needs a facility with operating capability.
- Priority: The patient is stable now but will deteriorate into the urgent category without evacuation within 4 hours.
- Routine: The patient needs further medical care to complete treatment, but evacuation can happen within 24 hours.
- Convenience: An administrative move, not a medical emergency.
These categories are assigned after triage and initial stabilization. A medic or corpsman on the ground makes the call, and the priority level directly shapes how quickly aviation assets are committed. An urgent request gets an immediate launch; a routine request gets scheduled around other operations.
Why the Format Exists
Radio communication in combat is often rushed, garbled, or interrupted. The 9-line format solves this by putting the most critical information first. Lines 1 through 5 contain everything the crew needs to launch the aircraft: where to go, how to make contact, how many patients, what equipment to load, and how much space they need. Lines 6 through 9 provide situational awareness that can be relayed while the aircraft is already in the air.
This structure means that even if communication is lost after Line 5, the mission can still proceed. The crew knows the location, the urgency, and what they’re walking into. The remaining lines help them prepare but aren’t essential to getting airborne.
Wartime vs. Peacetime Differences
The 9-line format adapts depending on the operational environment. During combat, Lines 6 and 9 focus on threats: enemy presence near the pickup site and potential contamination from chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear hazards. The security codes on Line 6 range from “no enemy troops in area” to “enemy troops in area, armed escort required,” which fundamentally changes how the mission is planned.
During peacetime operations, such as training exercises or humanitarian missions, those same lines shift to clinical and geographic information instead. Line 6 becomes a description of the patient’s wound type, bleeding status, and blood type. Line 9 describes the physical terrain around the landing zone, helping pilots plan their approach. The core structure stays identical, but the content reflects the different risks involved.
MEDEVAC vs. CASEVAC
The 9-line request specifically calls for a MEDEVAC, which is distinct from a CASEVAC (casualty evacuation). The differences matter. MEDEVAC aircraft are purpose-built air ambulances staffed with dedicated medical teams who provide continuous care during the flight. They carry advanced medical equipment and are clearly marked with the Red Cross or Red Crescent symbol. Under the Geneva Convention, firing on a marked MEDEVAC vehicle is a war crime. These aircraft are unarmed.
CASEVAC, by contrast, uses whatever vehicle or aircraft is closest and available. That might be a cargo helicopter, a truck, or an armored vehicle. There may be little or no medical equipment on board, and the patient might not receive any care during transport. CASEVAC prioritizes speed and proximity over medical capability, and it’s typically used when the tactical situation is too dangerous or too urgent to wait for a dedicated MEDEVAC asset.
The 9-line format is designed for the MEDEVAC process specifically, where planning, coordination, and medical handoff at the destination facility are all part of the mission. CASEVAC is more improvised and doesn’t follow the same structured request protocol.
Who Needs to Know This
Every combat medic, corpsman, and infantry soldier is trained to fill out and transmit a 9-line medevac request. It’s one of the core skills tested in military medical training across all branches. The format is memorized so it can be delivered under fire, in the dark, or while simultaneously treating a patient. Many service members carry a laminated card with the format printed on it as a reference.
The 9-line also shows up in civilian emergency medical contexts, particularly among first responders with military backgrounds and in disaster response scenarios where military assets are deployed for civilian rescue. The underlying logic of compressing critical information into a rapid, ordered format has influenced how civilian helicopter EMS programs structure their own dispatch communications.