Indonesian, U.S. forces practice humanitarian evacuation

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kia Atkins
  • Pacific Angel 13-2 Public Affairs
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AFNS) --  After two days of in-class lectures, U.S. and Indonesian service members and civilians from the Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center participated in an aeromedical evacuation subject-matter expert exchange here, April 24.

During the exchange, a disaster scenario was simulated in which patients needed to be taken from the disaster location to a safe place via a C-130 Hercules aircraft.

"We came out to the flight line today and the C-130 from the Minnesota Air National Guard was here," said Col. Tamara Averett-Brauer, aeromedical evacuation subject-matter expert exchange team lead. "We were then able to take our participants and give them a basic orientation of the aircraft, as well as show them how we adapt the C-130 cargo aircraft for patient movement."

After the participants were familiarized with the aircraft, they were shown western methods to load and secure injured people onto medical litters. After the training, U.S. Air Force service members instructed the participants on how to lift litters and stretchers to load them safely onto the aircraft.

"When the training was over, we then began the full scenario in which we used the Indonesian system where they break into three teams," said Averett-Brauer. "There's a pre-flight team that prepares the patients and takes them into the aircraft, and there's an in-flight team ready to receive those patients. The in-flight team secures them onto the aircraft, prepares them for flight and then during the flight they perform the care the patients need. After landing, which we simulated today, a post-flight team received the patients and took them to the hospital."

The exchange was held as part of Operation Pacific Angel. PACANGEL is a joint-combined humanitarian assistance mission held in various countries several times a year and includes medical, dental, optometry, engineering programs and various subject-matter expert exchanges.

The practical exercise involving the C-130 was part of a larger exchange including lectures and hands-on work led by U.S and Indonesian doctors.

"I feel like the aeromedical evacuation subject-matter expert exchange is very important because we need to practice together with other countries for events like this," said Maj. Mintoro Sumego, Indonesian Air Force medical doctor. "From this event with the U.S. Air Force, I think we got a lot of knowledge about aeromedical evacuation."

Sumego went on to say that he hopes the U.S. and Indonesian Air Forces can continue to have operations like this in the future, so that they don't have only a basic knowledge but an expert level of knowledge in many fields.