Cruising at 18,000 feet above Northern California, medical crews from around the country valiantly worked to save a person’s life. Fortunately for the patient, it was all part of a weeklong readiness exercise at Travis Air Force Base.
Thursday, aeromedical evacuation crews simulated the transportation of injured troops from overseas, either in response to military operations or humanitarian disaster and triaging them at Travis.
A C-5M Super Galaxy cargo aircraft, for the first time in this capacity, flew for two hours while crews simulated providing medical care, according to Capt. Lindsay Horn, head of the Public Affairs Office at Travis.
These skills, according to Travis officials, were used extensively in last year’s hurricane season. Bases within Air Mobility Command, Travis AFB’s parent command at Scott AFB, Ill., flew 16 sorties that moved almost 250 patients during hurricanes Irma and Maria in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Maj. Donna Eaton from Scott Air Force Base explained that the training was developed during the past year.
“This is proof of concept right now,” she said after landing back at Travis.
Eaton, who took the lead on developing the training, said that it was a dream of hers to be able to use the C-5M to carry a large amount of patients from one place to another. Unlike the smaller C-17 Globemaster III that can handle up to 96 patients, the C-5M can carry up to 300.
Thursday’s simulation saw medical crews from bases around the United States working together to first configure the cargo bay for patients by setting up specialized equipment for care, which allowed for the non-ambulatory to lay flat on a stretcher.
Crews also ran through equipment checks and loaded 20 non-critical and three critical patients and securing them for take off.
While in flight, exercise evaluators gave several medical scenarios to the medical crew to test their ability to react to the surroundings including dealing with the noise of the aircraft while performing life saving CPR.
“Our goal is to move the most amount of people at one time with great medical care,” Eaton said.
