MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The 927th Air Refueling Wing enabled nearly every military branch and component to test their joint service and total force medical capabilities during two exercises – Med Beach and Blue Horizon – on MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, recently. The exercises ran simultaneously, allowing participants to use assets and manpower cost effectively and conduct vital training in preparation for world-wide deployments and readiness.
“We are integrating a joint force in everything we do and laying the foundation to be a premiere joint readiness training location.” said Col. Brook Elkins, 927th Aeromedical Staging Squadron commander. “What we’re able to do now with these exercises has been the culmination of a decade of building relationships and partnerships.”
The 927th ASTS used connections and relationships built over the years to facilitate the evolution in joint medical readiness training, hosting Air Force, Air National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve and Coast Guard medical professionals for both exercises. Blue Horizon is in its third year on the installation and each time has provided lessons and opportunities for planners to advance the curriculum on offer.
“The two exercises occurring simultaneously allowed for a culminating event where the Med Beach patients from Patrick Space Force Base were loaded onto an out-bound mission with the 167th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron out of West Virginia,” said Chief Master Sgt. Bradley Clark, 927th ASTS senior enlisted leader.
“This created an opportunity to embed the Navy into the ERPSS [En- Route Patient Staging System], do the patient movement, process paperwork, experience launch and recovery, and then board the C-130 for an orientation flight.”
Planners from the 927 ASTS worked to incorporate UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the 5th Army Reserve Battallion-159th Aviation Regiment to allow Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers and Marines to conduct medical evacuation using 9-Line procedures. The squadron plans to incorporate a U.S. Navy or Coast Guard sea evacuation in a future iteration to bring the joint force experience full circle and let participants experience the full gamut of possibilities.
"Understanding the capabilities of our sister services can assist our medical personnel in planning downrange operations, guiding how we can integrate their strengths into our medical missions,” said Lt. Cmdr. Cameron Cushenberry, officer in charge of Blue Horizon. “This is valuable information and could mean the difference between life and death.”
The 927 ASTS specializes in establishing and operating an en-route patient staging system, establishing the ability to triage patients from the battlefield and provide care or deliver them to aeromedical evacuation units to ultimately transport them to the highest echelons of medicine.
The location of the ASTS, near the back of the installation, offers several advantages for conducting exercises in this fashion. A spacious swathe of land located next to the bay, along with ample warehouse and classroom space makes their location prime for joint exercises. Participants can get their hands dirty outside, conducting tactical combat casualty care (TCCC) procedures under stress inoculation conditions, and transition seamlessly to a military network-enabled classroom for debrief and further lessons. The Black Hawk helicopters, co-located on the installation, are a short hop to the simulated battlespace for providers standing by with their patients on litters, having been extracted from the chaos of the TCCC environment.
“Many of the participants in these exercises are working toward Air Force Force Generation requirements depending on where they are in the phases,” said Clark. “While the 927th wasn’t being graded, many Med Beach personnel were further along in the force generation cycle, being measured on their readiness for their essential functions.”
Bringing all these capabilities to bear for an exercise is not a small feat and the timing of the two events manages to incorporate the hallmarks of a much larger exercise while maintaining a small footprint in the remote corner of the MacDill peninsula in Tampa Bay.
During the exercises, the 927th and 6th ARW Public Affairs hosted honorary commanders and civic leaders for a tour, allowing participants to view the action.
"Witnessing the exercise first-hand has been an eye-opening experience,” said MaryBeth Williams, a 927th ARW civic leader. “The dedication, adaptability and teamwork displayed by these service members highlight the importance of joint-service training in ensuring medical readiness. Seeing different branches come together to refine life-saving skills under pressure is truly inspiring, and it reinforces the critical role of collaboration in real-world operations."
Along with the action on MacDill, around 30 physicians visited the University of South Florida Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation for advanced trauma life support skills training.
(Tipton is assigned to the 927th Air Refueling Wing public affairs office.)