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By Tech. Sgt. Amber Monio
VOLK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Wis. -- More than 50 Air National Guardsmen from six different states and seven units throughout the U.S. participated in aeromedical evacuation training here July 18 as part of PATRIOT North 2016.
The training was designed to provide Airmen with hands-on experience in transferring injured patients from the ground to an aircraft. With their engines hot and rotors turning, a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from the Nebraska National Guard and a UH-72 Lakota helicopter from the Indiana National Guard made the training a joint endeavor and helped simulate a more realistic domestic operations environment.
“This [training] benefits me because it increases medical readiness for [me and my unit],” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Kylee Coats, an aeromedical evacuation technician with the Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Medical Group. “We have to be ready for anything, and I think that these types of environments are important for us to practice in so that we are ready for the real thing when it comes time.”
The standard AE team consists of five people: a medical crew director, a flight nurse, a charge medical technician and two aeromedical evacuation technicians. Their job is to ensure the aircraft is prepared to fly patients and to tend to patients’ medical needs while in flight.
But before a patient is loaded for transport by an AE member, they must be able to endure the flight. The injured are transitioned from ground zero to the skies by transfer through the En Route Patient Staging System.
ERPSS teams are designed as forward operating teams that act as a link between the Self Aid Buddy Care portion of patient treatment and the aeromedical extraction to care facilities. They oversee the coordination of the patient’s movement to the aircraft and ensure they are stable enough to fly – in both expeditionary and domestic operations.
Air Force Capt. Keith Michael, a medical service corps officer and commander of the ERPSS package for the West Virginia Air National Guard’s 167th Medical Group, said the PATRIOT North exercise is the perfect opportunity to practice homeland response training.
Since the exercise is geared toward domestic operations, Michael said his Airmen are given the opportunity to train on injuries that would typically be found during a flood or hurricane, for instance, rather than the battle injuries they are used to treating.
“[We see] broken bones and types of emergency room trauma injuries, which are everyday injuries that a hospital would see but different than what we would see in a wartime environment,” he said.
Participants in PATRIOT North 2016’s AE training hailed from medical groups from coast to coast. They include: Wyoming’s 153rd Airlift Wing, Wisconsin’s 128th Air Refueling Wing, Michigan’s 127th Wing, West Virginia’s 167th Airlift Wing, Washington’s 194th Regional Support Wing, and California’s 146th Airlift Wing and 129th Rescue Wing.
“It’s very hard for us in the Guard to find exercises where we can come as a full group, a [Unit Tasking Code], and train together,” said Michael. “Usually we go off one or two at a time, whereas [PATRIOT] allowed me in particular to bring my entire UTC of 13 personnel to come out and actually work and do the job together.”
| Date Taken: | 07.18.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.20.2016 20:22 |
| Story ID: | 204427 |
| Location: | VOLK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 163 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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