By Sgt. Alexandria Hughes
32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team
FORT McCOY, Wis. - More than 150 combat medics from across Wisconsin converged here May 17 to 19 to participate in round-robin refresher training as part of the Wisconsin Army National Guard's Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Conference.
Critical skills included administering immunizations, preventing and treating anaphylactic shock, properly packing aid bags, proper ground evacuation procedures, behavioral health, and combat scenario training lanes.
According to Sgt. 1st Class Dick Wilson, the Wisconsin Army National Guard's combat medic coordinator and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the three-day event, the conference allowed participants "to network with other units around Wisconsin and share the best practices across board."
Lt. Col. Rebecca Giese, officer in charge of the AMEDD conference, concurred.
"[The conference] gives us a chance to see what other units do well and to emphasize the AMEDD's function in domestic operations," Giese said. "It's a chance for our medics to get out in the field for hand-on practice and to get into real-life situations in a better training environment.
"This is the only time everybody can be here all together," she continued, "so we're getting great practice, utilizing our professionals, brushing up on training, and getting Wisconsin's combat medics to sharing the latest and greatest information."
Spc. Kyle Fellinger and Pfc. Malachi Wallander, combat medics for Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, appreciated the opportunity afforded them by the AMEDD conference.
"I really enjoy meeting other soldiers in my same field, especially the experienced ones," Fellinger said. "It's really helping us build confidence in our skills and learn from them."
"It's good to get out of our comfort zone," Wallander said, "and the field training is forcing us to think on our feet and see what we really know."
Spc. Ruth Gaona, from the Wisconsin Army National Guard's Medical Detachment, said, "In our units we focus more on standard operating procedure and the clinical part of our jobs. Here, we get to work on the combat medic side of things, we get to train under pressure and learn the tricks of the trade."
Col. Kenneth Lee, the Wisconsin National Guard state surgeon and AMEDD medical director, stressed the importance of the conference.
"When the first AMEDD conference was held in 2009, the idea for all medics to come together once a year and see where we stand as a whole," Lee explained. "Since then, we've broken it down to train specific skills and emphasize the mechanics of how to be a valuable medic. The knowledge base here being put out to our young medics is priceless. The Soldiers here are meant to become trainers."
"We're trying to train the trainer and give them a power base of knowledge to take back to their units," Wilson said. "There is a hundred years of combat medic experience in that room and we need to keep sharing it.
"I want to emphasize how much hard work the instructors have done here," he continued. "They were all tasked with something they were uncomfortable with and it was fun to watch their confidence grow, to see how much detail they put into their training, and that the training was of such high quality.
"We are creating more trainers to spread across the state — and in the end, that's not just better for the AMEDD, but better for the Wisconsin Army National Guard," Wilson said.
Lee expressed his pride in the work of the Soldiers who supported and carried out the AMEDD conference.
"We bring in all the experts in the state," Lee said. "The conference doesn't just happen — it's a yearlong process. Every one of the people behind the scenes are doing this as an additional duty — there is no paid staff. The fact that they have been able to pull something off like this of such high quality is a compliment to what we stand for as Citizen-Soldiers. We can multitask, and the AMEDD conference epitomizes this."
| Date Taken: |
05.23.2013 |
| Date Posted: |
05.23.2013 10:58 |
| Story ID: |
107450 |
| Location: |
FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
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107 |
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