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By Brig. Gen. Robert Ferry
CAMP GRAYLING, Mich. (Aug. 28, 2024) -- The National Guard conducted its largest semi-annual combined arms maneuver exercise, Exercise Northern Strike 24-02, in Michigan, August 2–17, 2024. The exercise involved land, sea, and air operations and over 6,000 participants, including over 1,000 foreign partners from the United Kingdom, Latvia, and Lithuania. The exercise placed a great emphasis on providing medical care to wounded troops.
Medics of the Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) used a Navy Blackhawk helicopter to lift their patients off the fantail of a 224-foot decommissioned Navy Submarine surveillance ship and rush them to higher-level medical care. The Blackhawks played a critical role in the ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship patient movements which are vital for saving lives.
Medics of the Medical Company Area Support (MCAS) and En Route Patient Staging System (ERPSS) units from the Air and Army National Guard set up Role 1 and Role 2 facilities to receive, triage, treat, and evacuate simulated casualties.
Role 1 care provides medical treatment, initial trauma care, and forward resuscitation, not including surgical care and Role 2 care consists of medical treatment, advanced trauma management, emergency surgery, and resuscitative care.
One of the innovative technology assets employed was the Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit (BATDOK) provided by the Air Force to capture and relay clinical data. The BATDOK is a mobile medical software documentation tool that collects patient information from various sensors at points of injury, making it easier for medical professionals to document vitals and administer care.
Many patients need a constant supply of oxygen, but oxygen tanks can be difficult to transport, and only hold a finite amount of gas. The solution is a portable, 46-pound oxygen generator that was used by the Expeditionary Medical Support (EMS) unit to generate >95% inspired oxygen from ambient air. The unit supports prolonged care and the transport of simulated critical casualties via a CCATT unit without using any of the cumbersome, heavy steel cylinders normally employed.
During Northern Strike 24-02 patients moved through all domains with multi-service, multi-component interoperability. The Army Field Line Ambulance loaded patients on a grassy landing zone into Navy Blackhawk for evacuation to the civilian ship on Lake Huron.
The Air Force CCATT transported casualties from Role 2 at NADWC to Role 3 in the simultaneous Global Medic 24-02 exercise at Fort McCoy Wisconsin.
The Army medic and Maritime Academy cadets embarked the ship at Traverse City, Michigan, sailed around Michigan to Port Huron, then sailed back north along the coast. The Navy, Maritime Academy, and Coast Guard crews engaged in fantail hoist operations with Navy aircraft while sailing around Lake Huron without requiring resupply.
Also, the Personnel Retrieval and Processing Company of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve trained Soldiers and Airmen on the proper and dignified handling and processing of human remains, while preserving the chain of custody for evidence as needed for investigations.
Northern Strike is the largest combined arms maneuver exercise conducted by the National Guard. It is a Joint National Training Capability accredited, Army sponsored program of National Guard Bureau (NGB) conducted each winter and summer within the year-round National All Domain Warfighting Center’s (NADWC) contested multidomain operating environment at Camp Grayling, Michigan.
NADWC provides over 146,000 acres of developed training areas, 337 km2 of restricted airspace, access to the Great Lakes, and a railhead adjacent to Grayling Army Airfield for realistic training.
Maj. Zachary Benke, was the Lead Medical Planner for Northern Strike, and plans to increase multimodal MEDEVAC at Northern Strike 25-02 by inviting Army watercraft units and the 757th Expeditionary Railway Center (USAR).
| Date Taken: | 08.28.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.29.2024 09:44 |
| Story ID: | 479691 |
| Location: | CAMP GRAYLING, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 64 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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