Casualty evacuation, also known as
CASEVAC or by the
callsign Dustoff or colloquially
Dust Off, is a military term for the emergency
patient evacuation of
casualties from a combat zone. Casevac can be done by both ground and air. "DUSTOFF" is the callsign specific to U.S. Army Air Ambulance units. DUSTOFF is an
backronym meaning Dedicated Unhesitating Service To Our Fighting Forces. CASEVACs by air today are almost exclusively done by helicopter, a practice begun on a small scale toward the end of
World War II; before that,
STOL aircraft, such as the
Fieseler Fi 156 or
Piper J-3 were used. Casevac aircraft are a non standardized and non dedicated vehicle, that does not necessarily have en route care which is used to get a casualty back to another location where they can be treated by professional medical staff.