86 CCATT and AE sharpen cohesiveness

Story and photos by Senior Airman Devin Boyer
86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Airmen assigned to the 86th Medical Squadron’s Critical Care Air Transportation Team and 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron transport mannequin patients from a bus to a C-130J Super Hercules during a training exercise on the flightline July 12 on Ramstein. Despite the inclement weather, the Airmen pressed forward with the training as they would with real-world scenarios.

The 86th Medical Squadron’s Critical Care Air Transportation Team and the 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron team conducted a training exercise on Ramstein’s flight- line July 12.

Capt. Tracy Davis, 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron mission management element leader, shouts to her crew to clear a path while carrying a litter with Capt. Jose Torres, 86 AES standards and evaluation liaison officer, during a training exercise on the flightline July 12 on Ramstein. The 86th Medical Squadron Critical Care Air Transportation Team and 86 AES team worked together to transport critical care patients from the scene to the aircraft, and from the aircraft to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

The training improved working relationships between medical entities while increasing the clinical and readiness skills of the Airmen performing in the exercise.
“When you get into a situation with a patient, you don’t know what to expect so you always have to expect the unexpected,” said Capt. Brandi Leahy, 86 MDS CCATT nurse. “Anything can go wrong, so you have to be prepared for that.”
During the simulation, CCATT and AE worked together to transport the patients who were in critical condition from the scene to the aircraft, and from the aircraft to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
“On the occasions that we do fly with CCATT, which isn’t that frequent, we need to make sure that we can still coordinate together,” said Staff Sgt. Yadira Wood, 86 AES technician.
Although both CCATT and AE deal with patients, their responsibilities differ. CCATT provides critical care to the patients in the air and in transit while AE has more extensive training with the aircraft and water survival. Both are important assets when dealing with scenarios like the one in the training exercise.
“The cohesiveness bet-ween CCATT and AE is critical,” said Leahy. “We need them and they need us in these situations. So being able to communicate with them and have good training exercises with them makes it better when you actually fly a real mission. You know what people’s strengths and weaknesses are and you know what to expect from them.”

The 86th Medical Squadron Critical Care Air Transportation Team packages a mannequin patient in preparation for transport during a training exercise at the Simulation Center July 12 on Ramstein. The purpose of the training was to build working relationships between medical entities while increasing the clinical and readiness skills of the Airmen performing in the exercise.

Between inclement weather and working in tight spaces, the Airmen faced many challenges as they tended to their patients.
“Usually you don’t have this many people, but because we’re trying to maximize our capabilities we wanted to have as many people as we can out here,” said Wood.
From the challenges faced, the Airmen came out of the training with ideas to improve their effectiveness.
“I think we definitely need to maximize the aircraft space,” said Wood. “Ideally we would want to use the entire plane so the patients aren’t side by side.”
Overall, the training left the Airmen with more experience than they arrived with.
“Today we learned that you can never learn enough and you can never be prepared enough,” said Leahy. “These training simulations are important. If we don’t keep doing them, then things will slip and the deficits will get bigger and bigger.”