Photo By Staff Sgt. Bob Yarbrough | Medics with Company C, 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat...... read more read more
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FORT STEWART, Ga. – Soldiers of Company C, 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, partnered with an aircrew from Company C, 1st Battalion, 111th Aviation Regiment, Florida Army National Guard, to conduct aerial medical evacuation, or MEDEVAC, training on Fort Stewart, Ga., March 16, 2015.
The Vanguard Brigade continues to demonstrate its commitment to the Army’s Total Force Policy, which integrates the Army’s active and reserve components and represents the realization of the Total Force Concept.
“It’s important because we all get to see different points of view, different jobs and how they relate to each other,” said Spc. Andrew Maisonneuve, a medic with Company C, 703rd BSB, and a native of Greensboro, North Carolina. “Being a combat medic, I’m used to ground stuff. The flight medics in the birds, they get to see pretty much everything.”
The training began with an introduction to the flight crew, followed by a demonstration of the layout of the HH-60M, a hospital helicopter variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk, configured specifically for medical evacuations.
“What makes the M model improved is structural rigidity, a more aerodynamically efficient rotor system, and a lot more situational awareness for the pilots in the cockpit with digital maps and ability to control more radios,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Manuel Bustamante, a MEDEVAC pilot with Company C, 1-111th Aviation Regiment. The patient transport area also received upgrades, intended to assist medical personnel with casualties. “Basically, the cabin area has just about all the same basic equipment that a typical ambulance on the ground would have,” said the Jacksonville, Florida, resident.
After being familiarized with the aircraft, the soldiers conducted cold load training, which consisted of loading simulated casualties onto the aircraft, while it was not running. This helped to ensure Staff Sgt. Brandon Alwin, a flight medic with Company C, 1-111th Aviation Regiment, and lead trainer for the exercise could give on the spot instruction and correction without the added distraction of a very loud helicopter.
“It’s never a good day when the first time you’ve seen this, is when you’re really doing it,” said Alwin, a Jacksonville, Florida, native. “Basically, it helps you get over that speed bump of ‘Okay, what do I do?’ If you’ve seen it once before, even just briefly, it just helps everything run a lot smoother when you have a real patient.”
The training finished after several hot runs, or full simulated casualty loads on the running helicopter. Each soldier medic had an opportunity to either load a casualty on a stretcher into the helicopter, or assist an ambulatory patient to one of the onboard seats.
Lt. Col. Thomas Hair, the 3rd ID surgeon, was on hand to observe the training. Hair stressed the importance of training for MEDEVAC, as well as his gratitude for the Florida Army National Guard’s partnership with 4th IBCT. “It’s a highly, highly, perishable skill. It involves a lot of muscle memory and it involves a lot of practice,” said the Cincinnati native. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of M model helicopters sitting around. Fortunately, today, the Florida National Guard has sent this up here for our guys to practice on.”
Following the training at 4th IBCT headquarters, the aircrew flew to a field training area, where more medics of the Vanguard Brigade participated in the training during 4th IBCT’s field training exercise, Vanguard Focus.
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.17.2015 21:05 |
| Story ID: | 157312 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Hometown: | CINCINNATI, OH, US |
| Hometown: | GREENSBORO, NC, US |
| Hometown: | JACKSONVILLE, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 224 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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