Aeromedical crews converge on Minneapolis for DART

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Williams
  • 934th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Minneapolis-St. Paul --  The quarterly Dissimiliar Aircraft Readiness Training exercise for Air Force Reserve Command Aeromedical Evacuation squadrons wrapped up Sunday as 22nd Air Force staff proclaimed success of the 934th Airlift Wing hosted event.

Approximately 120 people and four aircraft from 11 bases throughout two numbered Air Forces Friday to join members of the 934th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron for the two-day training.

"I think this is the best DART I've ever participated in or coordinated," said Senior Master Sgt. Ron Nowasell, 22nd AF chief of aeromedical evacuation training. "The host was phenomenal. They read the lessons learned from prior exercises and did not duplicate the errors from other hosts. They set the bar high."

Eight aircrews from five bases throughout the commands participated in the exercise, designed to give hands-on training to flight nurses and aeromedical technicians on aircraft that they don't have at their home bases. Two KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft were flown in from Grissom Air Reserve Base, Ind., and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., to assist with the training, along with a C-17 from Dover AFB, Del., and a C-130 from Peterson AFB, Colo.

"We don't get to see C-17 aircraft every day and it was great getting acquainted with people who work on that airframe all the time," he concluded.

The exercise began Saturday morning as each participant was trained on configuring each of the available airframes through static training, and flew training missions in the afternoon with moulaged patients to simulate combat wounded personnel. It concluded on Sunday morning with two and a half hour training flights on different airframes.

"It was nice working with crews from across the country," said Senior Airman Tito Carrillo, 433rd AES aeromedical technician from Lackland AFB, Texas. "It was a good training environment and it was nice coming together with people that I've met from tech schools and other places. We learned a lot from each other."

Aeromedical evacuation crew members from Wright -Patterson AFB, Ohio; Peterson AFB, Colo.; Lackland AFB, Texas; and March Air Reserve Base, Calif., joined their hosts from Minneapolis during the quarterly exercise.

Staff Sgt. Rachel Snook, 934th AES aviation resource manager, was incredibly pleased with her team's performance.

"We processed flight orders, ran the mission board and troubleshot problems like when an aircraft broke and we had to switch crews and patients around," she said. "There were so many crews and so many people that it became mass confusion when we had to make crew changes and swap aircraft ... usually things like this are a disaster, but this was awesome. Everybody knew what their jobs were and worked well with everyone else. It couldn't have gone better."

A lot of the planning was coordinated by Capt. Jennifer Aasland and Senior Master Sgt. Kevin Cassidy, both of the 934th AES. Sergeant Cassidy had a death in the family that occurred shortly before the exercise and wasn't able to attend.

"It was noticeable that there was a lot of preparation from people behind the scenes who made it successful, especially Senior Master Sgt. Cassidy. It is regretful that he was unable to make it to this," said Col. Ron Wilt, 934th Operations Group commander. "However, I think it was a success. It didn't go perfect, but no training exercise ever goes perfect, otherwise we wouldn't have them. We've received a lot of good comments on the feedback surveys including 'Best DART ever'."
Colonel Wilt was one of the 36 volunteer "patients" who agreed to be strapped to a litter, painted with fake blood and don an IV bag to help this DART be as realistic as possible.

"I'm interested in the aeromedical evacuation mission and it was a fun experience participating," he said.

Lt. Col. Sherry Hemby, 934th AES commander, was very pleased with the comments her squadron received for their efforts in planning and executing the exercise.

"We read the after action reports from previous DARTs and addressed each of those issues" she said. "There is always the unknown and communication is the key to resolving those issues. One crew member from a visiting base said, 'We should have all of our DARTs up here,' so I think we did an awesome job. The compliments just thrill me."

The 934 AES plans to send personnel for the next DART that is scheduled for Oct. 2-4, 2009 at March ARB, Calif.