Luke reserve unit hosts mass casualty exercise

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Barbara Plante
  • 944th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz --  "Operation Patriot Bluebird," a mass casualty exercise, kicked off Friday at Luke Air Force Base with a passenger bus being hit by an IED blast causing several injuries and a possible bio chemical hazard to test members of the, 944th Fighter Wing, 56th Fighter Wing and Veterans Affairs Health Care System personnel.

944th Aerospace Staging Squadron hosted the exercise as part of the Joint Medical Operation Training Initiative Program which began developing over two years ago as the brain child of a former senior NCO from the 944th ASTS.  "The program brings together many military and civilian agencies embracing the "purple" concept and making 944th ASTS members a more valuable tool available for the Air Force," said Master Sgt. Johnathan Bartram, ASTS Medical Readiness superintendent.

"This type of training is essential to keep our skills up and provides the opportunity to work with the 56th and VA personnel.  We want to work with them as much as possible so they can see our talent and capabilities in case of a real world incident," said Lt. Col. Paul Duntley,  944th ASTS Flight Surgeon and incident commander for the exercise.  "This exercise will really help strengthen those relationships."

The evaluation team designed an exercise scenario that would provide personnel the opportunity to acquire, develop and refresh medical skills necessary for duty performance in their assigned Air Force specialty code.   Additionally, the training was planned to enhance readiness capability so that members can effectively perform their expeditionary mission. 

Individuals were assigned roles accordingly to their AFSC and worked side by side with their counterparts from different agencies.   The exercising members were at all different levels of knowledge and proficiency and some have full-time civilian jobs similar to their military AFSC while others do not. 

"Having a joint exercise puts it all together," said Col. Constance Jackson, 56th Medical Operations Squadron commander.    "ASTS moves the patients, then the Medical Squadron takes care of them.  This puts the entire picture together so all the pieces merge to give a full response to any situation.   This really gives us the opportunity to see how everything works together like when we deploy," said Jackson. 
  
Working as one team with joint forces and performing patient movement was a large aspect of this training exercise.  As a huge bonus the VA brought in their dual use vehicle, a bus which converts to a patient evacuation vehicle and provides for the transportation of passengers and patients including ambulatory, wheelchair and litter born during disasters or emergencies. 

"We have taken advantage of the VA's equipment to enhance our training here today," said Col. Michael Chesser, 944th ASTS Hospital Services Flight chief and lead physician on the VA's Emergency Management Committee.   "This is critical for our people as it gives them exposure to patient movement and to see state of the art equipment," he added.
 
"This training was definitely helpful.  We don't get to do this all that often and it was great to see the process in motion," said Senior Airman Vanessa Amemdorira, 944th Medical Squadron lab technician.

All of the training objectives were met today and there was excellent participation from all of the partners.  "The best leaning experiences can be developed by executing exercises and intergrading our personnel and resources. Over all the exercise today was a success because we worked so well together.  This is a great way to build trust and confidence amongst all players," said Capt. John Lewis, 944 ASTS Medical Readiness & Logistics officer.  

Lewis mentioned that there were some bench mark successes and some areas for improvement, however. 

"This is exactly the reason for exercises and training to see where our strengths and weakness occur and then build and develop those area areas," he added.