445th ASTS tests medical response and evacuation skills

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Denise Kerr
  • 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The recent torrential rain of Hurricane Joaquin served as inspiration for the 445th Aeromedical Staging Squadron's "Victory or Death - Heal and Defend" exercise here Oct. 4, 2015. Approximately 70 Airmen participated in the 24-event exercise designed to accomplish annual and quarterly mandatory and ancillary training.

The goal of the training was for the unit to respond to an influx of patients, set-up a triage area or en-route patient staging system, and protect the facility during a chemical incident.

"In this exercise, we are evaluating how well the unit acclimates to different events happening," said Capt. Tekara-Ray Carnegie, 445th ASTS exercise evaluator. "The main thing that Air Force Reserve Command expects the unit to do is get patients through the aeromedical evacuation system."

"We received a surge of patients from a simulated local disaster and a chlorine spill," said Lt. Col. Karen Keller, 445th ASTS nursing flight II commander.  "After we transport patients from the mini-emergency hospital, they come to the unit and can stay up to 72 hours before the patients are moved to their next destination."

Patients were covered with a variety of simulated injuries, from open wounds to head trauma, while a team of providers, nurses and medical technicians checked their vital signs in the staging area.

"Our squadron is designed to get patients in, stabilize them from wherever the casualty point occurred, and get them to higher care," said Staff Sgt. Shelton Beasley, 445th ASTS facility manager.

The exercise was driven by a one-man Emergency Operations Center.  Second Lt. Jonathan Charles, medical readiness officer, manned the exercise schedule, radioed in scenario inputs and collected information from the participants.

"Instead of the exercise evaluation team driving a lot of the exercise through event injects, the EOC pushed out the scenarios through radio communications; it is what normally happens through an exercise or real-world event," said Charles.

The exercise also tested how the participants secure the facility from danger to ensure a safe environment for patient care.

"We try to protect ourselves during an attack or chemical exposure or any type of threat that would bring down a facility and hamper our ability to take care of our patients," said Beasley.

During the three-hour exercise, service members trained on moving, loading and unloading patients during a disaster or incident.

Future exercises are in the planning stages that will include teaming up with the 445th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and other units.