JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. –
Military medical personnel from across the United States participated in the final day of an Expeditionary Medical Support System exercise at Joint Base Andrews, Md., May 12, 2022. The entire exercise allowed for the military personnel to hone their skills in a controlled environment so they are prepared for stressful emergency military medicine situations.
The two-week training that ended Thursday included tactical combat casualty care, ambulance bus procedures, and an emergency operations simulation. The exercise simulated a deployed medical environment with operating rooms for both surgery and dental care, and a basic medical aid tent, for those wounded in combat and evacuated.
It functioned as a joint service training, including military medical personnel from the Air Force, Army and Navy.
Senior Airman Sylvia Rosario, 316th Surgical Operation Squadron surgical operations technician, helped facilitate the training and spoke about the importance of being versatile and how EMEDS helps them prepare for deployment.
“It helps you think about the bigger picture,” Rosario said. “It makes you think on how to improvise to make things work.”
Some military medical personnel work in life and death situations; being able to learn and adapt to a variety of intense situations could prove critical in saving lives.
“Even though you have your specific roles in the hospital clinic setting, it’s important to get out of that routine,” said Rosario. “It allows you to feel the different environments of a deployment and helps you prepare for it.”
Service members spent eight days of training in the field to help develop their medical treatment abilities during combat situations.“It gives us the capability of readiness,” said Senior Airman Cathlyn Harlin, 99th Surgical Squadron respiratory care practitioner. “Any time we have a task, I’m ready to go.”