Photo By Lance Cpl. Zachary Larsen | U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Louis Nichols, an expeditionary firefighting and rescue...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS AIR STATION FUTENMA, Japan -- U.S. Marines with Crash, Fire, and Rescue Marine Corps Air Station Futenma performed rapid response drills on Jan 7.
A part of being an expeditionary firefighting and rescue (EFC) specialist is to be ready to jump to action at any given moment. To stay vigilant, Marines with Crash, Fire, and Rescue MCAS Futenma performed rapid response drills to be ready for any emergency.
“We are the first people to any emergency on the fight line,” said Cpl. Steven Ames, an expeditionary firefighting and rescue specialist with Headquarters and Support Battalion and native of Newport, Oregon. “Other units on the air field look to us to keep them safe if something goes wrong.”
The rapid response drill is a test of how fast EFC specialists get into gear, get gear prepped, start vehicles, and run procedures for putting out a fire. This gives the EFC specialists an accurate judgment of how fast they respond to an emergency.
“Everyday we will go over rescue operations and we even learn how to be dispatchers,” said Ames. “It’s important to know as much as possible so we can respond to any emergency and have an idea of what we need to do before we arrive.”
Crash, Fire, and Rescue MCAS Futenma does at least one large scale training a month, testing their skills of putting out fires, first aid, gear handling, and sometimes all of the above. Not all training is physical however, the Marines need to also be familiar with any aircraft on MCAS Futenma.
“We conduct simulated emergencies to simulate an aircraft emergency on the airfield,” said Lance Cpl. Justin Ingalls, a senior rescueman with H&S Battalion and native of Westby, Wisconsin. “We will have no prior knowledge and we have to treat it as a real emergency and conduct what we need to do depending on the situation.”
Ingalls also said that at Crash, Fire, and Rescue MCAS Futenma he learned a valuable skill.
“Communication and teamwork,” said Ingalls. “Without either of those, we wouldn’t be able to complete the mission.”
| Date Taken: | 01.07.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 01.14.2021 19:28 |
| Story ID: | 386574 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION FUTENMA, OKINAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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