“This is a project that has been developed by our emergency medicine residency training program and several of our U.S. Air Force residents,” said Mark Gebhart, associate professor of Emergency Medicine and director of the National Center for Medical Readiness at Wright State University. “It’s important to do this because any type of big disaster that’s happened in the past year has required the civilians to cooperate with the military.”
The training exercise occurred for several hours at 506 East Xenia Drive, a location that Gebhart said was turned over to Wright State University just days ago.
It was centered around six members of the 123 Special Tactics Squadron from Louisville, Ky., arriving to an earthquake scene in a Black Hawk H60.
Members of the squadron got the chance to practice their triage skills and patient movement.
“We’re usually the first guys on the ground,” Sr. Master Sgt. Karl Grugel said of the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron. “We do a scene survey. Check everything out. Figure out where the best helicopter landing zones are going to be. Our guys survey the scene and find out what type of equipment or personnel will be required.”
Volunteers from the base’s Medical Center staff, Active Duty Air Force Medical students and students from the ROTC programs at The University of Dayton and Wright State University acted as the wounded soldiers. Their injuries included broken bones, head trauma, and shrapnel wounds. Most of the injured were made up in fake blood, burns and bruises that were applied to them in make-up form by WPAFB’s Moulage Team. This team is responsible for all the makeup for casualty simulations.
Those taken up in the Black Hawk H60 were eventually placed in a staging area at the base.
Other participants included the National Center of Medical Readiness, the 101st Aviation Regiment, the 445th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, the 910th Airlift Wing (Youngstown), city of Fairborn and Miami Valley Hospital.
Wednesday’s training exercise helps foster “the understanding of operating procedures, tactics. So that when we come together for the real thing we will be better prepared to take care of folks and sort out the scenerio,” U.S. Air Force Major John Dorsch said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kwynn@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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