FORT SILL, Okla. (March 20, 2014) -- While trainees practiced their combat lifesaver skills at the Grenade Range March 11, the drill sergeants and cadre of C Battery, 1st Battalion, 40th Field Artillery teamed up with Air Methods, an emergency airlift company based out of the Lawton-Fort Sill airport, to practice a medical evacuation.
"The ultimate goal of this practice was to ensure that our drill sergeants and cadre are trained and aware of proper air medevac procedures in case of an injury to someone involving life, limb or eyesight," said Capt. David Rhoads, C/1-40th FA battery commander.
In the scenario, the Soldiers practiced as if a trainee dropped a grenade and the shrapnel caused their arm to be severed. The goal of the drill sergeants and cadre was to call for the medevac, and load the Soldier as safely and quickly as possible.
Maj. Corrie Brice, executive officer for 1-40th FA, set up the training with Air Methods, and scheduled the training for all six batteries in the battalion.
"The reason we're doing this is because it's easy for us to transfer from a tactical vehicle to an ambulance, but we don't train on loading a casualty onto a civilian airframe. That's why it's so important for our drill sergeants to train on this and have that capability," Brice said.
While many of the Soldiers have had combat experience in loading someone onto a Black Hawk helicopter, they had several questions for the civilian enterprise on how to do it to their standards.
James Hale, Air Methods medical base supervisor, said the biggest challenge for his company is entering air space on post.
In a real life situation, Fort Sill Range Operations would shut down training before allowing the helicopter to fly over. So for the Soldiers it's knowing who to call first to make sure help can arrive as quickly as possible.
Next, Soldiers ran through what to do as far as guiding the bird down to the landing zone and even how to do so at night.
"There are a lot of questions because they have specific way they want us to load and specific information they want us to put on a card or form. That's why I was asking if they have a standardized form maybe they could come up with to say OK this is where I applied certain medical bandages, tourniquet or anything that might be life saving. That way they would know ahead of time before putting them on the bird," said Drill Sgt. (Staff Sgt.) Lavern Schwartz, C/1-40th FA.
"I'm of the opinion that any information is good information. If you can give us a heads up I can anticipate how to treat," said Hale.
While the Soldiers said there were similarities to their military training, there were also differences. For example, Soldiers were instructed to remove anything heavy or of value from the the injured person before putting them on the litter so as not to weigh down the helicopter.
Soldiers were also taught to approach a military helicopter at a 45 degree angle, while James "JT" Taylor, Air Methods pilot, said that is not safe for loading the Eurocopter AS350. He said the Soldiers need to walk up perpendicular to the aircraft and make eye contact with him so he can signal for them to walk closer or stand back due to the blades.
Afterward, the Soldiers and civilians made note of how to do it better and practiced loading an "injured" Soldier onto the aircraft.
"It will go pretty smooth if we do have a casualty here," said Schwartz. "We have a lot of safety implementations, but if it were to happen they said they're 10 minutes away. Between the combat life saver training all the drill sergeants have and we usually have a medic on station for ranges of this caliber ... we can take care of somebody and get them to a level one trauma center."
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