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GRAYLING, Mich.- A little way up the hill, central to cantonment and south of Howe road, a small group of medical professionals gathered in the waiting room of Building 418 on a humid August day. The air conditioning system was taxed in the brutal Summer heat and the officers, dressed down to t-shirts after duty hours, were contrasted blue against the multitude of green-uniformed Army and Marine troops outside.
Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, abuzz with activity during Northern Strike 18, has the first Air Force-led joint medical clinic (JMC) here this year, and members of the 127th Medical Group (MDG), Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, along with three other National Guard units, are the first to staff the operation. 127th MDG members will also have the chance to participate in several unique medical evacuation (medevac) exercises, utilizing aircraft and environment unique to Camp Grayling, the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center and Northern Michigan.
Col. Sidney Martin, State Air Surgeon, Joint Forces Headquarters, Lansing, Michigan, said Army counterparts were integral in ensuring establishment of the joint clinic operation.
“They really came through in the bottom of the ninth,” Martin said. “Next year’s exercise will be completely different, you’ll see a lot more of a blended joint medical clinic.”
Not to be confused with Camp Grayling’s, “Troop Medical Clinic,” the JMC will triage basic medical cases and treat many non-emergency issues onsite. Equipped with an array of gurneys, a robotic training dummy, and other necessary medical assets, the JMC is able to service the personnel staying on base during the exercise and transport others to regional medical facilities.
For the medevac, Martin says a training scenario like Northern Strike provides the joint-service interaction, physical environment and aircraft assets similar to modern combat environments.
“What I like about this [simulated] battle space, is in a wartime scenario, the Army and Marine Corps will be our customers,” Martin said. “Putting [the medevac exercise] here offers an opportunity in both real time and wartime environments to ensure our [successful] communication.”
Serving alongside members from the 110th Medical Group, Battle Creek, Michigan, the Iowa Air National Guard’s 122nd Medical Group and the Michigan Army National Guard’s 145th Medical Company, Ypsilanti, Michigan, members on the ground will get firsthand opportunity to practice inter-branch communication skills. In addition to finding a working stride amongst the joint medical providers, next week the team will conduct more medevac training with different scenarios with Army UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters, Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo plane and KC-135 Stratotanker, from the 171st Air Refueling Squadron, Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan.
While helicopters are the most typical method of evacuating casualties in a combat environment, practicing with the larger KC-135 and C-130 will help the air crews utilize emergency take-off skills.
“Our primary role is to fuel the fight, give gas to whoever needs it, whenever and wherever,” said Maj. Jason Forbes, a KC-135 pilot with the 171sts Air Refueling Squadron. “Medical evacuation is also a mission of the tanker.”
Although the squadron routinely trains in these scenarios during Northern Strike and on other training missions around the globe, challenges still arise.
“There are a lot of different aspects to this sort of exercise, making sure we are working in concert with all participants is a challenge,” Forbes said.
Northern Strike 18 will continue through mid-August, uniting 20,000 people from 20 states, all branches of the military and nine countries. Special forces, fire departments, National Guard components and many different aircraft and vehicles will be traveling the airspace and roads of Northern Michigan during this time.
While KC-135 crewmembers navigate airspace deconfliction and refuel multiple fighter and attack jets next week, care providers in the joint medical clinic want to work to provide a positive experience amongst one another and for the patients coming into sick call. According to Lt. Col. Steve Corl, lead nurse and officer-in-charge for the 127th MDG during their Northern Strike deployment, the best advice he can give is as simple as asking servicemembers to be aware of their environments.
“Make sure you bring your bug spray,” Corl advised with a laugh. “If you see a three leaf, flee and if they’re white berries, don’t touch them.”
| Date Taken: | 08.13.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.13.2018 15:02 |
| Story ID: | 288546 |
| Location: | GRAYLING, MI, US |
| Web Views: | 61 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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