Keep your head down: Joint company training provides soldiers with aircraft familiarization

Photo By Pfc. Haley Haile | Sgt. 1st Class Mike Williamson, a flight medic with the 238th Air Ambulance Company, instructs the Soldiers of the 213th Medical Company (Area Support) on the hoist during a cold litter and hoist training event at an annual training exercise here. (Photo by Pfc. Haley E. Haile)  

FORT CHAFFEE, AR, UNITED STATES

05.12.2015

Story by Pfc. Haley Haile 

119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

FORT CHAFFEE, Ark. – Soldiers with the 213th Medical Company (Area Support) participated in a cold litter and hoist training exercise with soldiers of the 238th Air Ambulance Company during an annual training event here. The joint company training allows the soldiers from both job fields familiarize themselves with the opposite because they are usually not training together.

“Anything like this you want to start slow,” explained Sgt. Brian Renk, a combat medic with the 213th Medical Company (Area Support). “It builds on itself. We learn the cold side, or when the aircraft isn’t running first. Then the hot side will actually be when the aircraft is running. This will get the medics familiar with the whole process and how every thing works.”

The cold training consisted of soldiers from the 238th Air Ambulance Company teaching the soldiers from the 213th Medical Company (Area Support) on the proper actions to take around a helicopter: how to approach a helicopter when it is active, how to load and unload patients on a liter onto and off of the helicopter, and how the hoist machine works. With the training being cold, the soldiers were able to practice loading and unloading properly without any major risks.

“This kind of gives them some familiarization of what to expect if they are approaching an aircraft to load or unload a patient, what we are going to expect from them, and it lets them ask any questions so they can get comfortable,” described Sgt. Paul Grove, a flight medic with the 238th Air Ambulance Company. “They best thing you can do is ask a lot of questions and learn as much as you can.”

The cold litter and hoist training allows the soldiers to experience the aircraft up close before any hot training since very few soldiers have familiarity around a helicopter. This step-by-step training is how the soldiers can safely learn their job duties.

“The best advice I can give is to listen to the flight medics, they know the most out here and they are going to be able to keep everybody safe in a real life scenario,” reflected Renk.

“And keep your head down,” he laughed.

• Date Taken: 05.12.2015
• Date Posted: 05.20.2015 12:13
• Story ID: 163947
• Location: FORT CHAFFEE, AR, US
• Hometown: DUMAS, AR, US
• Hometown: FAYETTEVILLE, AR, US
• Hometown: LITTLE ROCK, AR, US
• Hometown: MOUNTAIN HOME, AR, US
• Hometown: NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR, US
• Hometown: PLUMERVILLE, AR, US
• Hometown: WARREN, AR, US