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Milestones accomplished as 'Golden Medic' exercise ends

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey S. Williams
  • Golden Medic Public Affairs
AUGUSTA, Ga. --  After nearly two weeks of intense training, building tents, surviving thunderstorms and simulating a real-world environment, the Golden Medic 2007 exercise at the Augusta Regional Airport - Bush Field and at Fort Gordon, Ga., concluded June 20, 2007.

"Colonel (Janet) Moore-Harbert, your unit did an outstanding job as a Battle Staff this year. The 706th Provisional Wing is hereby decommissioned," said Col. Michael Dankosky, Golden Medic exercise director, signaling the official conclusion of the exercise.

Addressing the participants, Colonel Dankosky said, "You pulled together and formed a fully functional Expeditionary Wing under Colonel Moore-Harbert. You got to represent the active duty, Guard and Reserve components of the Air Force, and you got to work with other services and agencies. I'm proud of all of you."

After reading off a long list of top performers, Colonel Moore-Harbert said, "Since we stood up as a wing a little over a week ago, I've had a slogan that said, 'Patients will flow and patients will go.' Last year we moved only 36 patients. This year, we've moved over 200. We accomplished our goals. As far as I'm concerned, everyone here is an outstanding performer. Thank you for participating."

According to Colonel Dankosky, some of the Air Force milestones include: more than 100 patients were treated by the expeditionary medical support squadron; 17 aeromedical evacuation missions were flown with 206 patients airlifted (including one dog), with 40 aeromedical evacuation crew members; 776 short tons of cargo were moved; 700 meals were provided in the joint Army-Air Force field kitchen and 27 different career fields were represented.

The helicopter support from the 832nd Medical Company Air Ambulance detachment, Army National Guard, included six helicopters, 112 sorties flown over 200 flight hours. They moved 241 passengers including one dog.

"This affirmed we could provide full mission support capability," said Colonel Dankosky. "We had 15 international visitors from England, Canada, Germany and Turkmenistan, with full intentions of bringing this to a global scale starting next year."

Lt. Col. Peter Greinwald, 32nd Electronic Counter Reconnaissance Squadron paramedic, German Air Force, Munich, Germany, was one of the international observers at Golden Medic this year.

"All of this was very interesting to me. Seeing the nurses and critical care air transport teams working together in the C-130 and C-17 aircraft was fascinating," Colonel Greinwald said. "I got lots of inputs on how you do it. It was a really good time. Hopefully I'll be allowed to come over next year for Global Medic."

Colonel Dankosky summed up his thoughts on this year's exercise as he looks forward to next year's.

"Golden Medic is a yearly medical exercise designed to provide a realistic training experience to participating combat support units, while enhancing the overall training and readiness of Army Reserve and Air Force medical units. We look forward to building this up even more next year," he concluded. (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)