News

Rainier Medic exercise amplifies readiness of Reserve, Guard medical units

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  When you can't get to the mountain, you bring the mountain to you. That's what the 446th Aeromedical Staging and 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadrons at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington are planning with their Rainier Medic exercise.
 
From May 27-to June 6, more than 150 medical Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard Airmen will be at JBLM McChord Field for a medical exercise that will also serve as the first mobile aeromedical evacuation patient staging course.
 
"For this exercise we're simulating JBLM main is somewhere in Africa and Gray Army Airfield is the airfield, and our (outbound patient staging) facility is going to be over by the DuPont gate," said Capt. Paul Hall, 446th ASTS medical readiness deputy flight commander. "We're going to drive our patients over to Gray Army Airfield, where the C-17 will be parked, we'll load them on there, the AE is going to fly around and do an AE mission and then land here at McChord and we'll have a receiving team here at Hangar 12 to receive them. McChord is simulating Ramstein or Madigan."

According to Capt. Jeffrey Mermilliod, 446th ASTS executive officer, there will be 16 Air National Guard Airmen participating.

"We have representatives from 19 different units coming from all over the country to participate," said Mermilliod, who kicked off the initial planning for the exercise in December 2013.

The aeromedical evacuation patient staging course portion of the exercise will help both the 446th ASTS and 446th AES increase their readiness levels.

"It's the formal UTC (unit type code) course that ASTS Airmen need to meet their mobility requirements," said Hall. "Usually we have to go down to Camp Bullis in San Antonio Texas to get in the course, but it's really hard to get in a slot. It's very rare that you can get a slot in there unless you're on the verge of deploying."

With a nine-person cadre from the formal course coming up to teach, the McChord Reservists expect to fulfill most of their UTC requirements.

"It was our idea to see if we could bring the course to us because we couldn't get slots," said Hall. "We have seven UTCs and we have about 60 to 70 people assigned to those UTCs. It affects our readiness rating."

The 446th AES also will benefit from the training course in their readiness.

"The opportunity to fly AE missions during this mobile aeromedical evacuation and patient staging course and Rainier Medic exercise enhances not only the training for the AE crews, but also gives realistic coordination and time constraints to the ground medical UTCs that support en route patient care," said Senior Master Sgt. J.P. Wirth, 446th AES superintendent of clinical services. "This includes the UTCs that fall under both the ASTS and AES."

The Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard do about 95 percent of the aeromedical evacuation patient staging mission, according to Hall. So opening up this exercise to other Reserve units makes sense.

About 28 people from the 302th ASTS, including their commander who is part of their critical care air transport team, are coming and bringing a C-130, which might get to play.

"We're going to have a C-17, an Army rotary wing helicopter, and several Army tactical vehicles so we can practice loading and off-loading patients on those transports," said Hall. "In the field we use vehicles of opportunity so we need to understand how to load them and how many patients can go on them. For instance, we'll have some field ambulances, which I believe can fit four patients, and some five-ton trucks, which I believe can fit 12 patients."

ASTS and AES Airmen have different responsibilities for patients in their care, but they must work together seamlessly to successfully execute their missions.

"Patients come off the battle field and to a field hospital first," said Hall. "They'll have their immediate treatments taken care of there and once it's determined that a person is required to be transported out of the theater, they get put in U.S. Transportation Command's Regulating and Command and Control Evacuation System."

That's the validation system that gets a patient on a plane and tracks their movement until they get to the hospital they're going to.

"At our facility, we prepare the patient for the flight; provide them their care until we transport them to the aircraft. The AE are on the aircraft waiting to receive our patients and they care for them on this flight to their next stop. If it's on the ground it's us, if it's in the air its AE. The ramp is the cutoff," said Hall.

For the 446th AES Airmen, the opportunity to fly twice a day goes a long way in helping them meet their flight currency requirements. "Being able to have our C-17s fly sorties into Gray Army Air Field during the exercise allows the AE crews to gain valuable training above and beyond the typical AE training mission," said Wirth. "They will be able to accomplish essential training in-flight that meets their currency needs for flying hours while encountering emergency patient and aircraft scenarios. Additionally, they will be able to interface with the ground medical UTCs at two separate simulated deployed locations. This interaction between the ground and flying UTCs is an area of high interest to the Air Force Surgeon General as well as AMC (Air Mobility Command) as the Air Force continues to improve the care of patients at all stages of patient movement."