Guard, Reserve medics gear up at Patriot '06

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Chance Babin
  • 926th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
VOLK FIELD, Wisc. (AFPN) --  More than 2,200 Airmen and Soldiers are gathering in Wisconsin at Ft. McCoy and Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center as part of Patriot '06, an Air National Guard-led exercise held July 15 to 28.

Servicemembers are also participating at Jefferson Barracks Air National Guard Station, Mo.

"The whole idea of Patriot is to give Army National Guard and Air National Guard personnel a joint training experience, so they know what to do if they are put in harm's way," said Lt. Col. Tom Floyd, national director for Patriot '06.

"My goal is for every single Airman and Soldier who comes here to see how important their job or duty is to the whole operation and to show them how they fit into the big machine," the colonel said. "It helps gives them the big-picture view."

Although Patriot has been around in one form or another for 10 years, Colonel Floyd says the exercise has evolved to be more in line with current ops and act as a true preparation for deployments. Part of that is the presence of Air Force Reserves, active-duty troops and coalition forces from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Turkmenistan and Canada.

In addition to numerous countries involved, there is a mix of aircraft. They include F-16 Fighting Falcons, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, C-130 Hercules, C-17 Globemaster IIIs, C-5 Galaxies, KC-135 Stratotankers, H-60 Black Hawks, CH-47 Chinooks and Canadian CH-146 Griffons and CF-18 Hornets.

"We try to make it look exactly like a deployment, from the orders process, to how they are received here and down to interoperability between services and specialties," Colonel Floyd said. "We've had a lot of testimony from those who attended Patriot and later deployed overseas who said Patriot prepared them."

The medics are broken down into two ground and aeromedical groups for training purposes. The ground medics are spending the first week undertaking Expedition Medical System, or EMEDS, certification training.

The training consists of setting up an EMEDS facility, the same kind being used in current overseas operations. EMEDS allows treatment from first responder to Level III medical care and is the core ground medical system used in the air expeditionary force and homeland security.

After setting up the tents and equipment, the medics are familiarized and trained on the equipment in the classroom and with hands-on training.

"The great thing about Patriot is that after the medics get certified they turn around and have a 96-hour exercise where they get to use the equipment and knowledge from the first week. They not only review their learning, but build on it," said Col. (Dr.) Jim Fike, consultant to the Air Force surgeon general, international health specialist program. "They also get to demonstrate interoperability with other sections as well as other services."

Aeromedical teams are working on a series of tasks, including training flights and casualty loading. This leads to the second week's theater aeromedical evacuation system, or TAES, which provides movement of patients.

"They take all the first week's training and put it together in system that supports ground operations and medical operation casualty flow," Colonel Fike said. "The thing that's great is that the first week of training can be accomplished elsewhere, but pulling everything together in the second week, when training is fresh on their minds, is something that is unique to Patriot."

For the Reserve medics at Ft. McCoy, the opportunity to train with fellow Air Reserve Component members is an invaluable training experience.

"We are all part of the Air Reserve Component and we need to learn to work together as part of the war on terror," said Col. Deb Esque, Air Force Reserve Command medical exercise director. "We learn from each other. Even within the ARC things are done differently and it's always a learning opportunity."