The saying goes, practice makes perfect and that was the intention of the recent medical evacuation full-scale exercise (FSE) hosted by the Air Delivery Systems Branch.
The practical training scenario held on Jan. 31 served as the culmination of a week-long safety stand down, where personnel took a week to review the standard operating procedures (SOP) through class work and hands-on learning.
“We take these opportunities to update our own SOP, get the care flight teams trained up as well as our own people up to speed, as far as the differences in protocols, tactics and procedures,” explained Staff Sgt. Ahmed Elinbabi Airborne Test Force’s (ATF) outgoing senior combat medic who served as an evaluator in the exercise.
The ATF falls under the Air Delivery Systems Branch which tests cargo and personnel parachutes —meaning the crew has an inherently dangerous job. Some on the team have seen this scenario in real life.
“This started about six years ago when we had a situation up here where we had a real-world emergency. We had a jumper who got hurt and we had to go through the procedures of getting life flight out here to get the jumper evacuated from the drop zone,” recalls Thomas Hall an Army veteran who now works as a test officer and test jumper with Air Delivery.
Hall goes on to explain, “The chain of command and leadership at the time thought it would be good to do exercises as we have Soldiers and civilians that rotate in and out, new folks coming on to get them exercise so if we do have a real-world emergency that makes things go smoother and everybody knows what they should be doing.”
ATF’s new Senior Medic Staff Sgt. Jonathan Harris took over on Feb. 1, so the training allowed him and ATF medic Spc. Christian Ramirez to familiarize themselves with the process. The last time the FSE took place in 2021 was when outgoing senior medic Elinbabi started his role at YPG.
“It’s really good for us to get this type of training in, I think it’s good for everyone to see what we are capable of, what we can do, and it shows us what we need to work on as well,” remarked Harris.
Key players in the exercise were those who would be involved if the remote medical evacuation scenario happened in real life. Air Delivery Systems Branch personnel, ATF Soldiers, civilian riggers/test jumpers, range control, mission control, a Military Freefall medic and Air Methods care flight.
When an emergency happens the Drop Zone Safety Officer (DZSO) calls Range Control. The operator there calls in the care flight. Hall explains, the DZSO plays a pivotal role as the sole communication on the ground.
“Once the aircraft gets near the scene, range control will patch their frequency over our DZSO ground frequency so our DZSO can talk directly to the helicopter, so he’ll exercise getting the aircraft in here.”
Dangers of landing in a rugged environment include a safe location to land the helicopter and possible brown out conditions where dust kicks up and the pilot cannot see.
At the drop zone, the first set of jumpers landed with no issue. During the second flight a jumper landed far from the intended drop zone and stayed on the ground. The ATF DZSO and medics immediately mobilized jumping on their off-road vehicles as the Mobile Medic Unit followed.
Each role player had evaluators alongside them with a clipboard assessing their actions and feeding them information on the patient’s condition for the scenario. Once the medics knew the extent of the mock injuries the Soldiers and civilian riggers worked to stabilize the mock injured jumper for transport to a trauma center. The ground crew had 25 minutes or so to prepare the patient for transport. Having the patient prepared for loading on to the aircraft makes the pickup more time efficient for the helicopter crew. This is where one of those lessons learned came into play.
“Today a big issue we had was the spine board. Realizing that it doesn’t fit is really good for us to know, so the next time something real happens we are prepared and have that patient on the bird a lot faster than we did today,” explained the senior medic.
Overall, those involved appreciated it’s value.
DZSO Staff Sgt. Anthony Apadaca said after the exercise was over, “Today was pretty realistic training. It was really good training for everyone on the ground, not just the medics and myself, but all the other jumpers. It keeps us sharp and ready for real life incidents.”
Harris added, “The best thing for us to do is treat everything as if it's real, regardless of if it's training or not; we train how we fight. If we go into this like it’s fake and don't take it seriously, it really diminishes our capabilities as medics. So, we do our best to always go into every scenario as if it's real. It really helps when everyone else is taking the training serious as well. It was really good practice for us.”
Social Sharing