932nd AE Airmen participate in exercise with Army

Published March 10, 2010
By Bekah Clark
375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Six aeromedical evacuation Airmen from the 932nd Airlift Wing at Scott Air Force Base participated in a Joint Readiness Training Center exercise with the Army at Fort Polk, La., from Feb. 12 to 22.

Capt. Rachelle Eckerman and 1st Lt. Corbin McCabe were two of the Airmen sent to serve as part of the three-person Aeromedical Evacuation Liaison Team from the 932nd AW.

Charged with the responsibility of instructing the Army as to what Air Force capabilities are, the AELT taught their Army battle buddies the ins and outs of aeromedical evacuation.

"The biggest hurdle was communicating to the Combat Support Hospital staff how important it was to have the right paperwork filled out adequately," said Lieutenant McCabe, referring to the form that details a servicemember's injuries and previous medical treatments.

The form also serves as a "transfer ticket" for a patient to be moved from the CSH to the Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility, where patients are treated for up to six hours before their evacuation aircraft departs, he said.

"We made it a point to educate the Army doctors and nurses, visiting each ward and explaining what each part of the form needs and why it's important," said Captain Eckerman.

It's a service culture difference, she said. The Army doesn't treat patients in airplanes so it's not always as intuitive to them that an AE crew needs more information to properly treat a patient in flight -- what could be routine care on the ground could change entirely with altitude.

The AELT also trained CSH staff on the software system used to input patients into the AE system to coordinate airlift to get the patient to the next level of required care, whether it's to a field hospital, Landstuhl, Germany or to a hospital in the U.S.

AELTs aren't a permanent fixture in CSHs, said Captain Eckerman. "When an AELT goes in, we train the Patient Administration and Disposition, but we leave and the PAD needs to be able to take over."

Training their Army counterparts wasn't the only job the AELT had to do. As a part of the exercise, there was a simulated mass casualty at the CSH. As part of the simulation, a guard had gone rogue, and took down many of the hospital staff, wounding and killing those who were supposed to be caring for the already sick.

Lieutenant McCabe was one of the first responders on the scene and immediately began triaging the wounded. His efforts were credited with saving many lives in the simulated attack. In fact, the Army unit commended the lieutenant for his efforts and coined him at the end of the exercise.

All training scenarios at JRTC mirror what servicemembers could encounter while deployed. In addition to the simulated attack on the CSH, teams also had to work through power outages, manning shortages due to casualties, and more.

"The situations we faced at JRTC forced us to think outside of the box," said the Captain. "It gives us a taste of what we need to think about if and when we deploy."

It was a total team effort, said Lieutenant McCabe. "The MASF did a great job working with our patients. They were very helpful in taking some of the CSH patients when the CSH was full or working a major issue, as well as letting us know how we could improve as we sent medical equipment and supplies with the patients."

In preparation for the exercise, Lieutenant McCabe attended a planner's course in October. The course enabled him to get the layout of the land, learn the setup of the exercise and meet who he'd be working with.

"I also got to see where the CSH was in relation to the MASF so that we could plan how to transport patients between the two locations," he said. "There was a village between the two locations that may have been friendly or unfriendly and we had to determine how to best prepare to handle a hostile situation in transit."

Overall, the Captain and Lieutenant agreed it was great preparation for a real-world deployment.

"It was a great learning opportunity. We learned the AELT specialty and then had to teach it to the Army, so that reinforced our knowledge as well," said Captain Eckerman. It's a very self-propelled training, they said.

"The trainer-mentors want you to think it through yourself, they are there to help, but ultimately you have to make the call because you're going to be the one who has to make the call when you're deployed," she said.

The hard work of the team did not go unnoticed by AE leadership. The AELT received recognition for outstanding performance during the exercise outbrief, and Lieutenant McCabe was asked to come back on a future rotation as a trainer-mentor. He plans to take AE leadership up on their offer for the exercise in April.

In addition to Captain Eckerman and Lieutenant McCabe, Maj. Timothy Jeffries was also a part of the AELT from Scott. The 932nd also sent a three-person team, made up of Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Higgins, and Staff Sgts. Edna Buckelew and Kenneth Wolfe, to Little Rock AFB, Ark. to serve as the AEOT.

JRTC provides realistic training using scenarios allow integration between U.S. military services, international militaries, and host nations. The JRTC compound also features mock villages where civilian role-players aid in the training exercises.