RAM squad exercises ability to rescue coalition forces

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Andrew Gates
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Firefighting tends to be a strenuous and dangerous job, requiring its practitioners to place themselves in harm's way to save lives and property.

A team of 20 Air National Guard firefighters at Ali Base have volunteered to take that responsibility a step further by working on the Rescue Air Mobility Squad.

RAMS members are combat firefighters who travel outside the protection of the military base to rapidly extricate victims from vehicles involved in accidents, said Senior Master Sgt. Roy Moore, 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron firefighter and one of two RAMS team leaders. This includes crashes or vehicles affected by improvised explosive devices.

The 20 volunteers are split into two shifts. These two shifts are divided into three three-person squads each, with two team leaders on each shift assigned to the RAMS mission to provide consistency. That means that each squad is on-call every three weeks.

"Military firefighters normally work 24 hours on and 24 hours off," he said. "Our volunteers for RAMS work their 24 hours as firefighters, and then are on-call for RAMS during their next 24-hour period, and then go back to their firefighting duty. For the week they work RAMS, they are really working a week straight."

Efficiency and speed are two watchwords for the members of the squad, the only one of its type currently in Iraq. Each four-person RAMS team has to be able to respond quickly with all needed vehicle extrication equipment to any incident within an hour's flight of Ali Base.

"We can either convoy out to a site or take a Black Hawk helicopter," Sergeant Moore said. "In either event, when we go out on a mission, we must carry all our extrication and personal equipment with us including weapons, armor, Kevlar and communication devices.

The extrication equipment is normally packaged in a 7-foot-by-2-foot titanium stokes basket on the back of a Humvee. When they get the call to go on a medevac helicopter, the team has to don their gear, grab weapons and proceed to the helicopter pad, known as a dust-off, and quickly load the gear onto the helicopter.

"Medical evacuation helicopters are supposed to be in the air within 15 minutes after they get a call," Sergeant Moore said. "We need to be on-board and ready to go well before then."

One team recently was involved in an Army-supported exercise to rescue a trapped victim, said Senior Airman Jason Bocek, 407th ECES firefighter.

"In theater, we play every exercise as if it were real world," Airman Bocek said. "We got the call during our morning roll call, so we had to drop what we were doing and scramble for the dust-off. We grabbed our gear, weapons and did a quick combat check before heading to the helicopter."

Once they loaded the helicopter, the squad was informed of the situation -- there was a car accident with a coalition distinguished visitor trapped in the vehicle.

"We had to get her out quickly, because the (helicopter) can't stay on the ground very long," Airman Bocek said. "Time is of the essence. We hit the ground, established our communication with ground forces, assessed the patient and vehicle condition then determined we were going to need to use our hydraulic tool to extricate the ‘victim'. We quickly removed her and (prepared) her for transport, then loaded her on the helicopter."

Although there is a flight medic on the helicopter, the firefighters work with the medic to render any medical care until the victim is removed from the vehicle, Sergeant Moore said.

"Once the patient is free, we turn him or her over to the medics," he said. In this exercise, the squad was back in the air less than 10 minutes after getting on the ground.

To prepare for their RAMS missions and coordinate smoothly with responding Army forces, the 20 volunteers attended an Army four-week combat skills training class before deploying, Sergeant Moore said. During that time, they went through convoy operations, marksmanship, land navigation training, and other mission-required training. The training not only prepared them for their combat mission, but for working with the Army.

"We learned what they would expect from us and what we could expect from them," Sergeant Moore said. "When we arrived in-theater, we had to validate our combat skills at a range."

The team expects to use the various skills they learn to help in their jobs at home, as well. Airman Bocek is a volunteer fireman in Michigan, as well as an emergency medical technician. Sergeant Moore is a full-time firefighter.

"The training definitely helps your career path as a firefighter," Sergeant Moore said. "It also helps develop you more as a leader. The people who volunteered for this assignment -- and who were selected by their fire chiefs at home -- are grateful to have the opportunity to make a difference and experience a new and exciting mission.

"We're firefighters first," Sergeant Moore said. "It takes all the firefighters assigned to Ali fire department to make the RAMS mission a success. Being on the RAMS is an additional duty. All of us consider ourselves fortunate to be on the team. It's a heck of an experience."