NEWBURGH, N.Y. — New York Army and Air National Guard medical personnel teamed up with their active component Army counterparts from West Point’s Keller Army Community Hospital for a three-day exercise that tested all parts of the medical evacuation system.
Seventy-five Soldiers and Airmen —from the 105th Airlift Wing, 109th Airlift Wing, C Company of the 1st Battalion, 171st General Support Aviation Battalion, Keller and the 466th Area Support Medical Company— took part in the drill at Camp Smith Training Site and Stewart Air National Guard Base, the home of the 105th Airlift Wing.
Army National Guard Capt. Samuel Chubb, the commander of the 466th, said the goal was to expose Army and Air Force medical personnel to the medical capabilities of each service.
It’s tough to get the chance for Soldiers and Airmen to train together, Chubb explained. In his 15 years in the Army medical field, he’s never seen an exercise that brought together as many elements as this one did, Chubb said.
“This was a big success,” he emphasized.
The 109th Airlift Wing is based at Stratton Air National Guard Base outside Schenectady, while C Company from the 1-171st is based at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport, while the 466th’s armory is in Queensbury.
The three-day exercise culminated on June 6, with a scenario in which casualties were loaded onto two of C Company’s UH-60L Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopters at Camp Smith, flown to Stewart and then loaded onto a C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the 105th.
This is known as a “tail-to-tail” transfer and is conducted when a patient’s injuries are so severe that they need to go directly to the top tier of medical treatment, Chubb explained.
Then the 105th Airlift Wing C-17 lifted off so that members of the 109th’s 139th Aeromedical Squadron and the 105th Medical Group could practice providing in-flight care for two hours.
The back of the C-17 was converted into an intensive care unit, managed by members of the Critical Care Air Transport Teams from the 105th Airlift Wing and the 109th Airlift Wing.
For increased realism, the “patients’ were made up with applications known as a moulage to replicate injuries.
Requiring the medics and medical technicians to diagnose the injury based on the moulage is more realistic than giving the “victim” a card to explain what their wound is, Chubb said.
The moulage kits were applied by personnel from Keller Army Hospital. Marine Corps Reservists, non-medical personnel from the 466th and Keller staffers acted as the patients to be treated, Chubb said.
The leadership at Keller played a key role in organizing the exercise, Chubb said. The Keller team wanted to train with the 466th, and then they reached out to the New York Air Guard to improve the training value, Chubb said.
“This exercise allows Keller (and the U.S. Army) to sustain a ready military force that refines Soldiers in the field of warrior tasks and military medicine,” said Col. Sean J. Hipp, Commander, Keller Army Community Hospital.
“This successful exercise is the result of incredible coordination and execution by the multiple agencies and will build long-term partnerships in the region,” Hipp said.
The Keller Soldiers had the opportunity to train in four-person and two-person patient litter carries under the watchful eyes of 466th medical personnel, while also learning how to load and unload patients from a helicopter.
Air Guard Brig. Gen. Gary Charlton II, the assistant adjutant general, Air, also praised the training opportunity.
“This exercise pulled together all the key elements of the medical evacuation chain. Army medical personnel, Army medevac helicopters and Air Guard medical personnel and aircraft were all involved,” Charlton said.
“This training allowed our Army and Air Guardsmen to learn together and from each other. This kind of training means our medical personnel will perform better when lives are on the line,” he added.