Photo By Marcy Sanchez | A UH-60 MedEvac Black Hawk helicopter with the U.S. Army National Guard’s 2nd...... read more read more
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The 29th annual Bataan Memorial Death March welcomed more than 8,400 marchers, March 25, in honor of tens of thousands of American and Filipino service members who were forced march over 65 miles starting at the Philippine’s Bataan Peninsula in the Southern Pacific during World War II.
With so many marchers trekking over 26 miles through the austere and desert environment of White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), coordinated medical operations was vital to a successful and safe event, during the 79th anniversary of the original march. Various agencies, including the U.S. Army, New Mexico National Guard, U.S. Border Patrol, local police, firefighters and medical organizations, contributed to the complex and essential mission of ensuring marcher’s safety and wellbeing.
In preparation for medical evacuations (MedEvac), Soldiers with 1st Armored Division and New Mexico National Guard practiced the “cold” and “hot” (engines off and on, respectively) loading and unloading of patients onto UH-60/ HH-60 MedEvac Black Hawk helicopters with 1st AD’s 2nd Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment (2/501st) and the National Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment, at WSMR, March 24.
“Our job is to secure the patient, treat the patient in the back and get him to the next level of care. The training is pretty important,” said Sgt. Leianne Maugeri, flight paramedic, 2nd Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment, Combat Aviation Brigade. “The whole mission is dangerous in general, you have the aircraft, the rotors, and it’s loud.”
Over a dozen Soldiers practiced the techniques prior to Sunday’s march, which doubled as an opportunity to orient Soldiers with the techniques in case of air Medevacs and an opportunity for Soldiers to gain real-world training in austere environments.
“It’s for the Soldier’s safety,” said Sgt. 1st Class Brad Sossoman, noncommissioned officer in charge, Medical Simulation Training Center, Fort Bliss. “They need to know how to approach (aircraft) because it’s a big pile of twisted metal that could kill you if you don’t do it right.”
Muscle memory is key because it’s easy for adrenaline to kick in and Soldiers to forget how to secure the patient and properly load the patient, said Maugeri, a Chicago native. The last thing medical personnel want to do is cause further injury to the patient or injury to anybody else.
“A lot of these younger (Soldiers) may not have that much experience around the (aircraft) so they get to familiarize themselves with it for when they have to do it for real,” said Sossoman, a native of Stanfield, North Carolina who has deployed twice to both Afghanistan and Iraq. “Any opportunity to get around a different type of platform that we’re not familiar with is always good training.”
The annual march also presented an opportunity to for Soldiers from the 31st Combat Support Hospital (CSH) out of Fort Bliss, Texas, to increase proficiency by and test equipment efficiency by supplying field hospitals to not only treat patients but also provide an opportunity for marchers to cool down during their desert journey.
“(The equipment is) a two sided tent with one side to be used for medical operations and the other side for cooling (marchers),” said Capt. Kyle Ohman, commander, 507th Medical Detachment, 31st CSH. “It’s training, good to test out the equipment and support the march.
“There’s a lot that can happen out here but the most likely would be a heat casualty, so having a cooling tent at 8 and 20 miles in will help reduce those injuries,” said Ohman.
The cooling tents proved vital during the march as heat casualties were minimal, according reports from McAfee U.S. Army Health and Dental Clinic, which led medical operations and coordination during the march.
“This isn’t the endgame,” said Sossoman. “The endgame is knowing what to do when it gets real, when we need to do it downrange (during combat operations).”
| Date Taken: | 03.30.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.30.2018 17:22 |
| Story ID: | 271320 |
| Location: | WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Hometown: | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 79 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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