Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Zane Craig | U.S. Soldiers with the 108th Medical Company Area Support, 213th Regional Support...... read more read more
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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Smoke billowed ominously from the hulk of the downed UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. From across the open field, teams of medics ran toward the crash carrying litters and bags full of tourniquets, bandages and other lifesaving supplies. A noncommissioned officer shouted at her Soldiers to extract the casualties from the smoking wreckage faster.
Approximately 50 U.S. Soldiers with the 108th Medical Company Area Support, 213th Regional Support Group, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, participated in a field training exercise as part of their annual training here July 15-19, 2025.
“Part of being medical company, area support is that our mission makes us an expeditionary unit, meaning that we provide medicine as close to the fight as possible,” said Maj. Kyle Freeman, 108th MCAS commander.
The exercise took place at two sites, one providing Role I care, immediate lifesaving measures, and Role II where patients are stabilized so they can be evacuated to a higher level of care.
“The Army builds medicine in a modular fashion, so we are kind of in the middle echelon of care, as far as our capabilities are concerned,” Freeman said.
The culminating event of the field training exercise simulated a helicopter crash on a landing zone within the forward operating base with four casualties inside, all of which needed urgent care. Both teams, the evacuation team and the treatment team, responded. They were able to quickly secure and remove the casualties from the helicopter, secure any threats to life and then move them into the treatment facility where they were stabilized and would then be evacuated to a higher level of care.
“The thing that makes me most proud of the team is the way I've seen them bond together, even when we're out here in the field working hard in hot days, long hours, they haven't complained, they haven’t fought, and they've really come together as one team,” said 1st Sgt. Larry Bergey, 108th MCAS' senior enlisted leader.
Bergey said the one word he would use to describe his Soldiers is resilient. They spent several days living in the field, sleeping in tents and dealing with heat, rain, bugs and a lack of indoor plumbing all while handling the stress of maintaining their trucks, generators and equipment while treating a variety of simulated casualties.
“We first started this in January, making sure that they could go through what we call a glasshouse exercise, which is very basic without even any equipment,” Freeman said. “Then we started setting up our equipment in earnest in February, we came out to the Gap in April, set up some more equipment, and in May, and then this all week, we've been training like this, treating patients all week, which is really good training for the Soldiers.”
To be able to deploy, the Army assigns units metrics they have to meet, the mission essential task list, which is pretty clearly defined according to Freeman. As commander, he evaluates whether each task is accomplished during training.
“One thing that I really appreciated about our medics is they trained with intensity,” Freeman said. “A lot of times intensity and violence of action will get us about 90% of the way to our goal. They worked really well as a team, but they trained with intensity. It's easy to get lackadaisical or complacent.”
Soldiers often conceptualize a unit’s level of training in terms of crawl, walk and run. Freeman described this exercise as being in the walk phase.
“Training like this is extremely important for those junior medics to get experience, to get comfortable with their scope of practice and actually utilizing the tools they know, getting them confidence and giving our newly promoted E5s and other NCOs the confidence and experience leading soldiers which for some of them is the first time since they got promoted,” said Staff Sgt. Joshua Romig, treatment platoon sergeant with the 108th MCAS.
Like many Soldiers throughout the Guard, Romig has taken on responsibility above his rank and pay grade as a staff sergeant in the role of a platoon sergeant. In the culminating exercise, he directed the incoming casualties based on the precedence of the injuries presented and then made sure that as he heard what was happening, his Soldiers had the necessary special equipment ready.
“The National Guard has been extremely helpful in my entire civilian career,” Romig said. “I've been able to travel the world through being with the Guard, I've been able to experience so much of the world and so many different experiences that it's an extremely apparent difference between myself and my civilian peers. I'm able to prioritize my time, field stress and still maintain a high level of output. I would never have actually been able to do that without the Guard.”
Spc. Rodney Allen, a combat medic with the 108th MCAS, earned his EMT license through the military, like all qualified combat medics. He has worked as a civilian EMT for two years in addition to working as a realtor and being enrolled in the nursing program at Bucks County Community College.
Allen’s parents are both naturalized citizens, his mother from Liberia and his father from South Sudan.
“They always instilled in me caring for others, so that was a huge thing, and I've always wanted to help other people and serve, so it's been a holistic full circle approach," Allen said.
Both Freeman and Bergey said the Soldiers of the 108th MCAS did well in the exercise, improved their skills as medics and Soldiers and exceeded their high expectations. Like the commander, first sergeant, Romig and Allen, many Soldiers of the 108th work in the medical field in communities throughout Pennsylvania and beyond.
“I think the training that I've received from the National Guard, the medical training, the experiences that I've had, have taught me both leadership skills as well as medical skills in very diverse environments,” Bergey said. “So when I'm in a more controlled environment and things become chaotic, it's a lot easier to react calmly because of what I've been through here.”
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.20.2025 08:57 |
| Story ID: | 543284 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 103 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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Fort Indiantown Gap
