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FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - Afghan National Security Forces personnel from all over Kandahar province spent the day safely loading each other onto and off a Cessna airplane on Forward Operating Base Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, May 25.
This heavy lifting was part of medical evacuation training provided by medical personnel attached to Task Force Gryphon, 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. The training allowed the ANSF soldiers and police to broaden their MEDEVAC skills and to become less reliant on U.S. MEDEVACs.
“What we’re trying to do is transition from U.S. MEDEVAC to Afghan MEDEVAC,” said Staff Sgt. Robert Mustain, a Nome, Alaska, native serving as medical noncommissioned officer in charge, Task Force Gryphon, 4th STB, 4th BCT, 4th Inf. Div. “This mission is part of the medical train, advise and assist, and it’s really our focus right now.”
The first part of training consisted of basic combat lifesaver refresher training completely run by Afghan soldiers. An Afghan flight medic served as the subject matter expert and taught the refresher course to nearly 20 ANSF personnel, explained 1st Lt. Jamie Mueller, a physician’s assistant from Forest Lake, Minn., serving with TF Gryphon, 4th STB, 4th BCT, 4th Inf. Div.
The ANSF personnel are already well versed in CASEVAC, which is evacuating a casualty using a ground vehicle, and giving aid at the point of injury. TF Gryphon trainers said introducing aerial assets for MEDEVAC will provide the ANSF that missing link to complete the chain in casualty field care.
“The ANSF CASEVAC their own people all of the time. They have their own medics, surgeons, hospitals and intensive care units so they can do the surgery, recovery and POI care, but the MEDEVAC is the link that’s missing,” Mustain said. “I think that introducing the aerial platform will generate a lot of excitement and confidence within themselves and within their own medical corps.”
Mustain explained that the ANSF uses their own aerial assets by learning how to safely load and unload wounded personnel onto a Cessna 208 single prop’ airplane. They first load them onto the plane with the engines off, which they call cold load training. Then they do the same thing with the engines running, called hot load training.
“The hot loading is the run portion of the training, and we’ll be moving at combat speed. So the cold load training gets them ready for the hot load training, and the hot load training prepares them for a real life scenario,” Mustain said.
The Cessna is a good medium for the ANSF to use because of its economical and versatile characteristics.
“The 208 Cessna is fuel efficient. It can change from CASEVAC to passenger, to human remains, to cargo,” said Maj. Todd Abshire, a pilot serving with the 441st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron.
Arming the ANSF with medical training is particularly important to Mustain. He has seen them grow from the very beginnings of first aid, to watching them learn how to perform their own MEDEVACs.
“It’s been quite a ride for me. This is my fourth tour in Afghanistan,” he said. “It’s been interesting to see them graduate from just trying to do first aid, to seeing them do surgery on their own guys, and now MEDEVAC. It’s really satisfying to finally close the loop and finish what we started.”
| Date Taken: | 05.30.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 05.30.2014 10:24 |
| Story ID: | 131608 |
| Location: | FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPIN BOLDAK, AF |
| Hometown: | FOREST LAKE, MINNESOTA, US |
| Hometown: | NOME, ALASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 435 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, TF Gryphon facilitates MEDEVAC training for ANSF, by SFC Whitney Houston, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
