IDAHO CITY, IDAHO – The sounds of rotor blades thumped overhead as the rotor wash of a UH-60 Black Hawk kicked up rocks and debris that slammed into the Airmen waiting during a simulated live medevac.
Below, Tactical Air Control Party Airmen from the 124th Air Support Operations Squadron, Idaho Air National Guard, gripped sked stretchers and moved Survivor Rescue and Agility Training Dummies, which simulated moving wounded teammates across steep terrain.
The three-day field training exercise, held May 5-7 in the remote mountains of southwestern Idaho, was designed to replicate the harsh realities of combat search and rescue in Indo-Pacific environments. It combined Tactical Combat Casualty Care, low-angle rope rescue familiarization, extended field care and live helicopter integration to push the unit’s tactical and medical readiness.
“The intent behind this training is a tactical medicine pillar focused in mountainous terrain where extended field care is required, replicating operations in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Tech. Sgt. Griffin Langiano, a TACP/JTAC instructor and the lead planner for the exercise. “Whether we’re working with sister services or unilaterally on an Air Force team, there’s always a need to be proficient in life-saving care.”
The training resulted from nearly three months of coordination, bringing together outside agencies, rotary-wing assets and medical experts. One of the most significant additions to this cycle was the integration of trauma surgeons from the Air National Guard’s C-STARS (Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills) program.
“My role was to help coordinate our group of trauma surgeons with the TACP team,” said Lt. Col. Denise Winters, a trauma surgeon at St. Louis University Hospital and Air National Guard program director with C-STARS, Joint Force Headquarters, Missouri Air National Guard. “We were tasked to look at their SOPs (standard operating procedures), identify gaps and provide hands-on training for skills they may not regularly use, such as chest tubes, cricothyrotomies and prolonged care interventions.”
For Winters and her team, the exercise wasn’t just an opportunity to teach; it was a chance to understand better the conditions frontline Airmen face and adapt their own approach to Air Force-wide trauma care.
“We gained a greater appreciation for what people are experiencing in the field, their resource limitations and the real risks they encounter,” Winters said. “That helps us when we go back and have conversations about how to build better training for the broader Air Force.”
For newer TACP members, like Senior Airman Christian Moak, the training marked a first-time experience with medical procedures that go beyond the scope of standard battlefield care.
“Learning how to do a chest tube or a cric, those aren’t things we usually get into. That’s usually the medic’s job,” Moak said. “But the truth is, we don’t always have a medic around. This training gave us the confidence to step in and do something when someone needs help.”
Moak, who completed his initial JTAC evaluation in September 2023, said the hands-on aspect of the weekend brought the team’s baseline knowledge to the next level.
“It’s one thing to learn this stuff in a classroom. It’s another to do it under stress, in the field, with rotors going, mud everywhere, and limited sleep,” he said.
That realism was intentional. Langiano noted that planning the training for mountainous terrain during spring, when it can still be snowy and muddy, was one of the biggest logistical challenges.
“We had to be deliberate with site selection and time of year,” Langiano said. “But that’s part of it. We’re training for austere, complex environments, places we could very well find ourselves in the future fight.”
And that fight, many believe, will demand more than just kinetic skill sets.
“These Airmen aren’t just precision airstrikers, they’re communicators, medics, problem-solvers,” Winters said. “What impressed me the most was how quickly they absorbed the medical interventions we introduced and asked the right questions to understand the ‘why’ behind it.”
Throughout the weekend, camaraderie and focus carried the team through late nights, camping, cold mornings and demanding evolutions. Whether trekking steep hills with rescue litters or improvising splints with limited gear, the TACP team adapted, improvised and performed.
“It’s always about pushing the standard,” Langiano said. “This was just one step. From here, we’re building full-mission profiles with different terrain, different times of day and more complex problem sets.”
Ultimately, whether it’s a battlefield, a mountain ridge or a remote island in the Pacific, the mission and the lives it protects require nothing less.