Patriot Clipper trains Airmen in quick response to real-world emergencies

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Sadie Hewes
  • 439th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

    Critical care patients were loaded in and out of trucks, C-17’s and helicopters by aeromedical evacuation Airmen while aerial porters and Marines worked to secure anything from litter storage units to Humvees for various flights. Federal Emergency Management Agency workers loaded a static aircraft. Even their service dog was there for training. Airmen trained in emergency communications relayed flight patterns and patient movement information across the east coast as Westover Airmen trained in emergency operations.

     Some 300 exercise players participated in the Patriot Clipper 2017 exercise, which lasted from June 2 through June 9.
    The exercise included 83 flights carrying 134 simulated patients, 150 passengers, and 192 short tons of cargo. Westover Airmen worked alongside aircraft and service members from five other bases, including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, March ARB, California, Keesler AFB, Mississippi, Maxwell-Gunter AFB, Alabama, U.S. Army Reserve, and the Connecticut National Guard.
    The joint-operations exercise, which highlighted skills of Airmen from the 439th Aeromedical Evacuation and Aeromedical Staging squadrons, the 42nd and 58th Aerial Port squadrons, the 439th Communications Squadron, and several units tenant units, consisted of
simulated deployed operations in three locations: Westover, Joint Base Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Plattsburgh International Airport, New York.
In addition to support from multiple Air Force units, both Marines from units around the country and Connecticut Army National Guardsmen also participated.
    Every unit attending the exercise played a major part in supporting the operations.
    The Contingency Response Element, which was made up of Airmen from several units, worked to maintain communications across the three locations.
Airmen working for the CRE have the technical skills to set up communication via secure and unsecure means anywhere in the world between 75 degrees North and 75 degrees South as long as they have power, said Master Sgt. Jason Garvin, assigned to the Contingency Response Element at Plattsburgh.
    This communication capability aided 439th AES Airmen in relaying patient and aircraft movements across the exercise.
    For Senior Airman Jose Mendez, a 439th AES radio transmissions systems technician, this year’s exercise provided better training on equipment than in previous years.
    “It’s better because we actually have more equipment than last year,” said Mendez. “We get more training on setting up and being more comfortable with the equipment.”
    Meanwhile, Airmen trained in aeromedical procedures loaded, cared for, and unloaded simulated critical care patients on C-17s both on the ground and in flight.
    In flight, there were simulated incidents involving patients the aeromedical Airmen had to respond to, including a psychiatric patient attempting to start a fire and a patient having a seizure.
    The medical crew on the flight worked quickly and efficiently to stabilize patients when these incidents occurred, so quickly, in fact, it was hard to tell what was happening until after it was over.
    “The unexpected is going to happen eventually,” said Senior Airman Brandon Mitchell, 439th AES, who worked as the lead medical technician on one of the flights, about the in-flight patient incidents. “This is what we trained for.”
    Those who were not working to save lives on the aircraft actually had the opportunity to role play as patients in flight.
    Senior Airman Alyssa Lynch, 439th ASTS, played the role of an ambulatory patient.
    Lynch said experiencing things as a patient, going to the aircraft, being on the aircraft, and being unloaded from the aircraft was excellent training for the medical technicians.
    Experiencing how the patient actually feels, as a medical technician, is great to see. We see the other side, so we know how to better care for them, said Lynch.
    In addition to patient movement, aerial port Airmen worked with Marines to load trucks and Humvees onto aircraft and secure them to be moved to other participating locations.
    Senior Airman Jacob Nieves, a ramp technician assigned to the 58th Aerial Port Squadron, said working together with other branches and agencies was a lot of fun for the aerial port Airmen.
    “Everybody has a different mentality and a different way of doing things,” said Nieves.
    “You learn different ways of communicating and different ways of getting the job done.”
    To an onlooker, it may have been difficult to determine what was going on and who
belonged where, but for the members of the exercise, everything had run very smoothly.
    “This was a lot of fun, we’ve got to do this more often,” said Nieves.
    As Airmen gain experience with exercises like Patriot Sands and Patriot Clipper, they grow more and more proficient in how to respond to real-world emergency situations.
    “You did tremendous things,” said Col. Howard Clark, 439th AW vice commander, addressing participants during a hotwash June 9. “This exercise was an amazing success, and our Airmen even had a little bit of fun.”
    Planners are already discussing next year’s Patriot Clipper, scheduled to be held in the late summer to early fall.

    Editor's note: For ongoing coverage of Patriot Clipper visit Westover's Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/westover.patriot