BEAUFORT, S.C. - An Air National Guard Expeditionary Medical Support team will pioneer new territory in military medical training and education as part of Vigilant Guard South Carolina, one of the largest training exercises in the history of the National Guard.
The EMEDS team, comprised of 62 doctors, nurses and other medical specialists from Air National Guard units in seven states, will become the first team ever to complete its 5-year certification review during a field exercise and will also use the opportunity to provide more than 18 hours of professional continuing medical education, approved by the American Medical Association and administered through the state of South Carolina.
Vigilant Guard South Carolina, based in Beaufort County, S.C., April 21-23, is an emergency preparedness training exercise based on a major earthquake that notionally will be centered in the Beaufort area. The exercise will bring together more than 3,000 National Guard personnel from more than a dozen states who will work together with local, state and other federal agencies to respond to the disaster.
The EMEDS team brings the medical skills that would be necessary to respond to such a disaster. For the exercise, the team will set up a 6-bed hospital near Beaufort.
Typically, EMEDS teams travel to the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in northern Michigan for a week-long certification exercise, once every five years. By being tested for certification during Vigilant Guard, the EMEDS team will save $50,000 in training costs and gain flexibility in planning its future schedule, said Col. Henry Heard, commanding officer of the 187th Medical Group in the Alabama Air National Guard and commander of the EMEDS team for the exercise.
"This doesn't replace Alpena, but it provides another option for commanders," Heard said.
Heard said at the end of the exercise, the EMEDS team will turn over a blueprint for future EMEDS teams to be certified during such an exercise.
In addition to the certification review, local experts will be providing lectures and other training good for 18.25 continuing medical education credits and members of the EMEDS team are slated to work through 20 different ancillary training requirements.
In addition to the 62-member EMEDS team, a cadre of 10 data collector/controllers, including representatives of Air Combat Command, which is the certifying authority for the EMEDS team, will be observing the operation.
An important element of the training exercise is the opportunity for the EMEDS team to work closely with Army National Guard units, Heard said.
"We bring medical specialists, but we don't have equipment. So we need to work together with the Army to provide us with tents to sleep in, to coordinate a place to eat and bringing in the tents and cots and all the equipment we need to create a hospital," he said. "We provide the medical knowledge, but someone else has to provide the infrastructure."
Just days before the exercise was due to begin, Heard said gearing up for Vigilant Guard has been a very positive experience.
"People are coming together, understanding that we all have to work together to accomplish our mission," Heard said.
Which is exactly one of the goals of an exercise like Vigilant Guard, said Brig. Gen. Les Eisner, deputy adjutant general for Army in South Carolina and the commander of troops for Vigilant Guard 2008.
"The National Guard brings trained personnel from around the country who are able to support a community that has suffered a disaster. Vigilant Guard allows us to test our capability and develop relationships with the local and state agencies we would be working with," Eisner said. "The EMEDS brings an important medical expertise that can be relied upon in a disaster."
For Master Sgt. Tina Moore, a member of the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Medical Group, working on the exercise is an opportunity to increase her own readiness to respond to an emergency.
"It is an incredible learning experience to be able to interact with the Army and the civilian resources," she said. "It is incredible to see all these people come together to be ready to help out a community in an emergency."
Personnel making up the EMEDS team in Vigilant Guard S.C. came from the 187th MDG, Alabama; 169th MDG, South Carolina; 143rd MDG, Rhode Island; 107th MDG, New York; 117th MDG, Alabama; 158th MDG, Vermont; and 188th MDG, Arkansas.
Support personnel also came from the 20th MDG, South Carolina; and the 149th MDG, Texas.