126th Aviation Regiment Trains for Emergencies

Photo By Sgt. Jarod Dye | Staff Sgt. Philip Sutton of Company G, 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment reviews mission documents while UH-60 Blackhawk headed to Deepwoods Training Site for joint medical evacuation training with Company B, 3rd Battalion of the 172nd Infantry Regiment.  

BANGOR, ME, ME, UNITED STATES

03.04.2017

Story by Spc. Jarod Dye 

121st Public Affairs Detachment

Soldiers of Company G, 3rd Battalion of the 126th Aviation Regiment of Bangor provide vital medical support for the Maine National Guard both while overseas and home side. However, they do not only provide medical support and first-aid for the military.
“We’re here full time, we keep an alert shift that’s always on call,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Curtis, the pilot in command of the MEDEVAC (medical evacuation) operation.
“We supplement with the warden service, the park authority, and state agencies to perform rescues when no one else is available to do it.”
The aviation regiment can provide hoists and get into difficult locations some civilian medical helicopters cannot reach.
“Most of the real world MEDEVACs we do are in fact civilians,” said Curtis.
To maintain their skills Soldiers of the 126th trained with Soldiers from Company B, 3rd Battalion of the 172nd Infantry Regiment (Mountain) of Brewer this weekend at Deepwoods Training Site. The focus of the training was to hone both units MEDEVAC skills.
“Today is a multi-unit training where the Bravo Company is going to go out and do their normal, mission critical tasks, and they wanted to incorporate MEDEVAC training into these events,” said Staff Sgt. Philip Sutton, a flight medic for the 126th. “Our task is to go out there and provide that MEDEVAC training for them”
The aviators flew to the specified landing zone in the Deepwoods Training Site and picked up a simulated casualty the infantry medics prepared. The liter team carried the casualty to the helicopter, loaded up, and the black hawk crew with patient in the back flew back to the aviation headquarters. This process was repeated three times during the day and three more times at night.
The weather for the training event was extremely frigid with high winds. This created a new set of challenges for the 126th.
“Today is windy and cold which is going to present challenges for both us and them, we need to figure out those and overcome,” said Sutton.
Although temperatures with the wind chill dipped below zero, the mission was not affected.
This training was conducted to keep the infantrymen’s skills sharp for when they need to call a real MEDEVAC and to keep the aviation unit in constant practice for when a real medical evacuation is required, according to Sutton.
“It incorporates the simple task of putting together a 9-line (MEDEVAC request), it is actually very useful for everybody because they have to figure out a grid coordinate, they need to figure out communications with us and then actually sending the radio communications,” stated Sutton. “It helps us too because we have a crew ready to go and it gives us muscle memory for our 15 minute launch time.”
“I like the idea of doing multi-unit training,” explained Sutton. “I find it useful to have everybody come in at once and use all the equipment that we have.”
Joint training also creates a stronger relationship between the participating units.
“We like to prove to the ground units that when they call, we will actually come,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Curtis, the pilot in command of the MEDEVAC operation.
The training concluded Saturday night when Soldiers from both the 126th and the 172nd returned to their headquarters where they did recovery operations and prepped for next month’s drill.

• Date Taken: 03.04.2017
• Date Posted: 03.05.2017 13:20
• Story ID: 225711
• Location: BANGOR, ME, ME, US
• Hometown: BANGOR, ME, US