By Maj. Marc Welde
421st Medical Battalion (Multifunctional)
VILSEK, Germany - Talk about an early wake-up call - 4:30 a.m. Feb. 23, Soldiers from Headquarters, 421st Medical Battalion (Multifunctional), received an "alert to deploy" to conduct Expert Field Medical Badge operations in Vilsek, Germany - more than 460 km from their Baumholder home.
With the extremely high operational tempo of many U.S. Army Europe combat support units, commanders seek creative solutions to maintain proficiency in their expeditionary and war time tasks. Tasked to provide mission command and to run the 2015 Army Europe Spring Expert Field Medical Badge competition, the Baumholder, Germany-based 421st Medical Battalion (Multifunctional) took an opportunity to sharpen deployment operations tasks through a multi-model deployment to Vilsek.
"It starts with the basics. The Army has been focused on combat operations for the last 14 years; we have forgotten a lot of the basic fundamentals of warfare. These [deployment] exercises are just what we need to reestablish the baseline to ensure we can 'fight tonight,'" said Lt. Col. Roy Vernon, commander, 421st Medical Battalion.
During the exercise, the battalion conducted typical pre-deployment operations to include medical and personnel processing, legal preparations of wills and powers of attorney and the loading of all equipment required for an early entry element, the portion of the battalion headquarters designated as the mission command element for the EFMB. Following an eight-hour convoy movement, the unit arrived at an intermediate staging base, or ISB, in Vilsek. The site's design replicated the ISBs found in places such as Kuwait, Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, Romania, and Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Though many of the Soldiers in the battalion do have combat experience with "real" ISB operations, there are several younger Soldiers in the unit who do not.
After a night's stay at the ISB, the unit conducted tactical sling load operations via a UH-60 helicopter supported by the "Blue Stars" crew from Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. This was followed by convoy operations into the operational area. It was the first time many Soldiers had operated around military helicopters.
"The sling load training was a huge adrenaline rush. This was my first experience with hooking equipment underneath a UH-60. The instructors were very knowledgeable and helped prepare me for any instance where I may have to conduct this type of operation," said Spc. Darrell Stidham, a combat medic and native of Milton, Florida.
"We alert, we marshal and we deploy to an ISB before deploying to a combat zone. It looks and feels just like this. We do this here, so we are ready for it when we go to the fight," said Sgt. Maj. Felix Infante, operations sergeant major for the 421st Medical Battalion (Multifunctional) and a native of San Antonio, Texas.
The 421st Medical Battalion will host 150 Soldiers from U.S. Army Europe and 30 additional service members from various NATO countries at the upcoming Spring EFMB competition. The candidates will be given a chance to earn one of the U.S. Army's toughest badges: the Expert Field Medical Badge. In 2014, only 19 percent of the Soldiers in the Army earned the EFMB, making the badge a distinctive mark on Soldiers' uniforms and records.
The EFMB training starts March 15 with an opening ceremony and continues with a week of standardization activities to ensure candidates are clear on the strict standards of the EFMB test. Testing begins March 22, and the culminating event, a 12-mile foot march, is scheduled for March 27.
Social Sharing