News

Joint exercise tests combat medical skills

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Al Eakle
  • 622 RSG Public Affairs
AUGUSTA, Ga., --  McChord 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron Reservists and other Reservists from around the country deployed to Augusta, Ga., June 10-19 to participate in the Army Reserve’s largest medical exercise, Golden Medic 2006.
The 446th AES sent more than 25 personnel to participate in the exercise. More than half of the 200 Airmen at Golden Medic have deployed for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
“Air Force Reserve Command has participated in this exercise from the beginning,” said Chief Master Sgt. Tim Pittman, a key exercise planner from Headquarters AFRC, Robins Air Force Base, Ga.
“We started out with a handful of people and continue to expand participation every year.”
Set in a Southwest Asia scenario, Golden Medic test the ability of Air Force and Army medical and support units to evacuate casualties from the battlefield to a hospital outside the region.
At the airport, Airmen set up a tanker airlift control facility. The facility served as a mini-base operations and controlled the flow of military aircraft flying into and out of the airport.
Ambulances and helicopters moved the patients from the front lines to the rear through a series of Army medical facilities.
At the forward edge of the battlefield was the Air Force’s mobile aeromedical staging facility. Patients enter the Air Force aeromedical evacuation system at the MASF.
After assessing their medical conditions, medics moved the patients from the MASF to a waiting C-130 Hercules. An aircrew from the 911th Airlift Wing, Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station, Pa., provided the airlift.
After the C-130 landed, the patients went to a contingency aeromedical staging facility. Their medical conditions were reassessed and medical teams loaded them onto a C-17 Globemaster III for transport out of the theater. An aircrew from the 452nd Air Mobility Wing, March Air Reserve Base, Calif., flew the mission.
This was Maj. Esther Aubert’s first Golden Medic. A nurse with the 446th AES, she was part of the exercise battlestaff, patient insert team, and an observer and controller who ran scenarios on aircraft.
“I thought the exercise went really well,” said Major Aubert. “It was an excellent training opportunity to go in and set up the environment from scratch and coordinate with actual agencies instead of simulating it. Also, to be able to interface with the Army and other agencies and see it work well was spectacular.”
One goal was to interface with sister services to provide the best medical care in a wartime environment, said Lt. Col. Mike Dankosky, exercise director for the Air Force portion of Golden Medic.
According to the colonel, today’s military medical care system offers a 97 percent survival rate after casualties make it from the battlefield to the theater hospital.
“The training Army field medics receive today, coupled with advances in today’s aeromedical evacuation system and en route support care, has increased casualty survival tremendously,” Colonel Dankosky said.