Balad exercise hones response skills

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carlos Diaz
  • U.S. Central Command Air Forces
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNEWS) --  A joint Army and Air Force exercise recently tested the emergency response skills of Airmen and Soldier firefighters at Balad Air Base, Iraq.

"Our No. 1 goal is to coordinate an emergency response that'll safely take the injured to a medical treatment facility," said Chief Master Sgt. Kevin Remedies, 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron fire chief.

The simulated injured in this scenario included a check point guard at the top of a perimeter tower who was shot in the neck by sniper fire.

A fire rescue team comprised of Air Force and Army personnel responded and took on the responsibility of rapidly extracting the wounded Soldier out of the 40-foot tower.

"Speed is very critical with this type of emergency," said Master Sgt. Wesley Hudson, 332nd ECES assistant fire chief. "After we've determined the emergency type, we send the most qualified medic to access the situation."

"Then we decide the method of extraction and proceed safely to remove the individual from the tower," Sergeant Hudson added.

Inside the tower, members of the 60th Ordnance Company, 206th Army Support Medical Company and 332nd ECES fire department carefully removed the injured Soldier.

Army Sgt. Christopher Babich, 206th ASMC, cradled the wounded Soldier as they were roped down by a pulley system.

Spcs. Andrew York, Shoshannaa Faber and Michael Harms and Pfc. Michael Caldwell, 60th OC, waited at the base of the tower to strap the wounded checkpoint guard into a secure gurney.

"We use all of our gear to make the exercise more realistic," said Army Maj. Edward Camacho, Force Protection and Safety Consequence Management action officer.
The major said this exercise gives new firefighters rotating in the opportunity to hone their emergency response skills.

"It's a good feeling to know that you know how to do your job," said Staff Sgt. Clint Montgomery, 332nd ECES fire rescue team crew chief. "These exercises allow us to hash out our problems before a real-world event."

"Our training is just as intense here as it is back home, and we must always maintain a constant state of readiness," Sergeant Montgomery said.

That constant state helped the joint rescue fire teams achieve an eight-minute extraction time on their exercise.

Chief Remedies said the rescue teams aim for a goal of 10-15 minutes to extract a wounded person from this type of structure.

"Their time was excellent," Chief Remedies said. "With great teamwork, we were able to reach our objective."

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