Exercise Global Medic: U.S. service members tested with medical training scenarios

UNITED STATES

08.20.2017

Story by Spc. Christopher Lindborg 

Exercise News Day

More than 12,000 U.S. service members and six other partner nations are training here as part of the 84th Training Command’s Combat Support Training Exercise 86-17-02 and Army Reserve Medical Command Global Medic. This joint and multi-national exercise is designed to ensure that America’s Army Reserve units are capable, combat ready, and lethal.
“I believe that we are more mission ready this exercise than we were last year,” said Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Paula Simpson, a combat medic specialist assigned to the 256th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) of Twinsburg, Ohio.
Simpson’s mission was to portray a chief ward master of a combat support hospital during the scenario.
The scenario included both mannequins and moulaged service members who had simulated wounds.
Air Force Reserve Airman Jordan Moler, a medical logistics specialist assigned to 932nd Medical Squadron of St. Louis, Missouri, portrayed a dead-on-arrival airman.
Moler said even though his job is on the logistics side, it was still interesting to go through the scenario, and see how units respond to and treated service members who are injured or die in combat.
Exercise Global Medic is a multi-national exercise that includes forces from the United Kingdom, Canada and Royal Saudi Land Forces.
Capt. Ryan Adams, a British army reserve member assigned to the 205th Field Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, participated in the exercise as an Observer-Coach-Trainer for the 256th CSH.
“We’ve seen people come on loops and binds really through the course of the week,” Adams said. “We’ve seen some real standout characters as well, especially toward the end of the week when it started to get a little more tough. They’ve been hit time and time again. They puckered up and kept going.”
Army Reserve Medical Command’s Medical Readiness and Training Command (MRTC) plans, synchronizes and executes collective training for Army Reserve medical units in support of full spectrum operations by planning, resourcing and executing medical collective training exercises like Global Medic, which are embedded in CSTP exercises. MRTC units develop a scenario and provide a tactical environment that allows units to establish operations on a much greater scale that includes the additional elements of joint context necessary to meet DoD joint medical training requirements.
“Every time we get casualties it really helps me to further my training as a combat medic, especially with things you don’t see every day,” said U.S. Army Reserve Pfc. Rebecca Markham, a combat medical specialist assigned to 256th CSH. “I definitely want to deploy someday and use my skills I’ve learned at the exercise to help Soldiers out on the battlefield.”

• Date Taken: 08.20.2017
• Date Posted: 08.27.2017 20:45
• Story ID: 246148
• Location: US