Working together to heal

Photo By Staff Sgt. Francis Horton | Spc. Cathy Mason (right center) and Petty Officer 2nd Class Sarah Godette (left) move a simulated wounded service member onto Forward Operating Base Young’s flight line for medical evacuation on a C-130 airplane at Fort McCoy, Wis., during Warrior Exercise 86. Mason, a native of Waynesburg, Pa., is a medic with the 901st Minimal Care Detachment, Fairmont, W.Va., and Godette, a native of Salt Lake City, is a Navy corpsman with Detachment K, Operational Support Hospital Unit, Bremerton, Wash. Soldiers, sailors and airmen came together to work toward the common goal of caring for and evacuating wounded from the battlefield. (U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Francis Horton, 363rd Public Affairs Detachment)  

FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES

07.25.2013

Story by Sgt. Francis Horton 

363rd Public Affairs Detachment

FORT MCCOY, Wis. – During any U.S. military joint services training, jokes at the expense of each service are usually tossed about with good nature. But, despite the occasional ribbing between services, soldiers, sailors and airmen have a common ground in the care and evacuation of their wounded.

Soldiers with the 901st Minimal Care Detachment out of Fairmont, W.Va., are working with Navy corpsmen and airmen to transport simulated wounded out on UH-60 Black Hawks and fixed-wing aircraft.

“We’re pretty much like a holding facility,” said Spc. Cathy Mason, medic, 901st MCD and native of Waynesburg, Pa. “They are stable when they get to us and we prepare them so they can be transported to a higher echelon of care.”

“It’s good training,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Sarah Godette, Detachment K, Navy corpsman with Operational Support Hospital Unit out of Bremerton, Wash., and native of Salt Lake City.

Mason and Godette worked together as a litter team, loading and unloading patients on and off aircraft and vehicles.

So far, the training has been nonstop.

“You constantly get ambulances in, you’re constantly on your feet. You have to be ready,” said Mason.

While the Army and Navy are taking care of the wounded, the Air Force is making sure transportation is quick and efficient.

“The Air Force is running the flight line,” said Air Force Master Sgt. Adam Rauch, 914th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and an observer, controller/trainer at Forward Operating Base Young.

The Air Force has also been training the soldiers and sailors how to safely load and unload patients from various aircraft while the engines are running.

Running engines increases difficulty and danger to the wounded because of the air blown around by jet and propeller wash, Rauch said.

The medics aren’t passing up opportunities to bone up on their preparedness.

“A lot of the training is setting up a bare-bones, from scratch contingent. The MCD has to come in, set up tents and be ready for patients,” Rauch said.

Along with MCD setup, the medics are practicing their litter carrying and basic first aid.

Since day one, the training has run smoothly.

“From the first day, all services came together as one unit and worked very well together,” said Chief Petty Officer Charles Mitchem of the Great Lakes 1 Expeditionary Medical Force in Great Lakes, Ill. Mitchem is the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Forward Operating Base Young medics, and native of Connersville, Ind.

Joint operations like this are important for the safety and success of real-world joint services missions in the future.

“If there is a time or a place we have to work together, we know how each one operates,” Mitchem said.

• Date Taken: 07.25.2013
• Date Posted: 08.01.2013 17:57
• Story ID: 111216
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US
• Hometown: CONNERSVILLE, INDIANA, US
• Hometown: FAIRMONT, WEST VIRGINIA, US
• Hometown: SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, US
• Hometown: WAYNESBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, US