Airmen participate in first ICRT training

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Nadine Barclay
  • MEDCEUR 11 Public Affairs
KRIVOLAK, Macedonia (AFNS) --  Airmen participating in the 2011 Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe conducted the Aerospace School of Medicine's Initial Contingency Response Team training scenarios at the Krivolak army training area here June 10.

This was the first time U.S. Air Force medics have conducted this type of training.

"This training is actually made up of three teams: the preventative medicine team, the mobile field surgical team and the expeditionary critical care team," said Maj. Steven Keifer, the USAFSAM ICRT officer. "This training offers individual and combined training for the teams and follows Air Force medical doctrine for deployments."

The ICRT training is designed to test students' ability to respond to situations they may encounter in a deployed environment. Students are forced to use their critical-thinking skills to resolve issues that may arise, maximizing the desired effect of the training.

"We have brought the students out to Krivolak to simulate them forward deploying from Pepelishte, (Bulgaria), to respond to a natural disaster," Major Keifer said. "This in itself is realistic because these medic teams are the first to hit the ground. They partner with bioenvironmental and public health personnel to establish the bare base layout."

To add realism to the exercise, instructors enlisted the help of volunteer victims who received moulaged, or mock, injuries.

"The reason that we do moulage is because of the realism it adds," said Staff Sgt. Ezequiel Villarreal, an Expeditionary Medical Support System and ICRT instructor. "The patients actually bring it to life because they will be screaming at the medics, requesting medication, requesting treatment themselves and hopefully requesting treatment for their fellow Airmen as well, which mimics the chaos you might find at a disaster site."

The bodies and screams of Airmen with injuries varying from head trauma to open chest wounds to burns littered the disaster area.

"We, as the instructors, require the medics to do everything themselves, from carrying their own equipment to setting up a mobile field hospital, and even requiring them to evacuate victims with no help from outside sources," Sergeant Villarreal said.

Students were given actual medical supplies and medical equipment they would have normally to treat patients, but only simulated equipment that would cause actual pain to their "victims."

Overall the training proved to be beneficial to all parties involved, officials said.

"I loved the training," said Maj. Cindy Harris, the 86th Medical Group's chief of department of emergency medicine from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and an ICRT student. "It's not often that we get the opportunity to practice like we play using real supplies for training, but this course was very beneficial. I learned a lot."