Photo By Master Sgt. Ryan Matson | A U.S. Army flight medic with the 3rd Forward Support Medical Platoon, Company C, 2nd...... read more read more
Even as they deal with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Army Active Duty and National Guard medics found the time to conduct some important medical evacuation training April 1 on Powidz Air Base on Powidz, Poland.
The New Mexico National Guard’s 1209th Medical Company (Area Support) has been busy in Poland screening and monitoring Soldiers for symptoms of the Coronavirus, as well as speaking to units about preventative measures and emergency planning. Meanwhile, their Active Duty counterparts on base, flight medics from the 3rd Forward Support Medical Platoon, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, have been settling in to their new home in Poland.
On April 1, the two groups of medics came together for aerial medical evacuation training on Powidz Air Base in Powidz, Poland, where both units are deployed in support of Atlantic Resolve.
“The training was basically to give the ground medics some familiarization with the aircraft and safety measures around the aircraft,” Staff Sgt. David Hedinger, a flight medic with Company C, said. “It was hot-load and cold-load training on how to get stretchers in and out of the aircraft and we also did hoist training. It’s kind of our last option for getting someone off the ground, but it’s a handy tool to have.”
Hedinger said the training followed a crawl, walk, run format. In the crawl portion, the 1209th’s medics were introduced to the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, the medical evacuation aircraft used in the training. He said the capabilities of the helicopter and the medical team aboard the aircraft were covered. Next, litter system loading was covered.
In the walk phase of the training, the helicopter was turned on and the resulting noise and chaos of loading patients on and off the helicopter with the engines running. In the run phase, the hoist and tagline was brought into play. Hedinger said the training focused on handing over a casualty from the ground medics to the air crew.
Chief Warrant Officer Jeffrey Blakeman, a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot with Company C, got the idea to train with the 1209th’s medics and Soldiers.
“We don’t get the opportunity to train with ground units very often,” Blakeman said. “We just wanted to share experience with them - it gets them comfortable with the aircraft, especially when it’s moving. It’s already chaotic in a real situation.”
While the medics and flight medics focused on transferring a patient safely from ground to the air crew, Blakeman said the crew in the air focused on crew coordination – hovering and dropping a medic into the evacuation area and building trust within the team. Her said the medic and the hoist operator practice using hand signals to be in synch when safely extracting a casualty.
Blakeman said he and a co-pilot practiced manual hovering rather than allowing the helicopter to hover itself. The aircraft hovered at about 50 feet above the ground. While Blakeman hovered the aircraft, the co-pilot watches and has the capability of manually overriding the hoist should there be an issue like if the hoist were to lose power or the pendant were to stop working. The crew chief runs the hoist and is responsible for getting the medic safely to the ground and then the medic and the casualty back onboard the aircraft. This is an art in and of itself, Hedinger said, as the line comes out about 300 feet per minute.
Pfc. Geovany Castillo, a medic with the treatment and evacuation platoon with the 1209th who has been in the Army less than two years and was doing training for the first time with a helicopter, said he gained a lot of good experience from going through the training.
“It was a great experience because I haven’t gone through this training before and I got an appreciation for how chaotic a patient hand-off can be because we’re used to it being in an ambulance where it’s less rowdy,” Castillo said. “It was beneficial to see how it all comes together and how hard the Army works to keep their Soldiers alive and well.”
Spc. Chance Miller, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist with the 1209th said the training was valuable to him because although he is not a medic, if he ever had to respond to a situation in which he had to load a patient into a litter for an air medical evacuation, he would be comfortable.
“I also have an interest in aviation, so getting to speak with the pilots about their experiences was invaluable to me,” Miller said.
2nd Lt. Zack Jesse, the platoon leader for the 1209th’s treatment and evacuation platoon, summed up why the training was important to his Soldiers.
“At the end of the day, when there’s an emergency and there’s a ton of patients that need to get out, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re a litter bearer,” Jesse said. “To get that hands-on experience of loading a patient when the blades are off and on, that’s just incomparable.”
| Date Taken: | 04.24.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.24.2020 07:46 |
| Story ID: | 368364 |
| Location: | POWIDZ, PL |
| Hometown: | ALBUQUERQUE, NM, US |
| Hometown: | FARMINGTON, NM, US |
| Hometown: | IDAHO FALLS, ID, US |
| Web Views: | 166 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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