The 78th Aviation Battalion took part in the field hospital
training exercise MEDEX 2000 at Sagami Depot by transporting
patients to and from the site in UH-60A Blackhawk helicopters.
Warrant Officer Michael J. Parkinson, a paramedical evacuation
officer with the 332nd Medical Brigade, said wounded soldiers
participating in the exercise are the priority for the air
evacuation teams.
"Our job is to get these soldiers from the field hospital to an
airfield where the Air Force takes over and gets them out of the
country,"he said. "The field hospital use the transportation, but it's
for the wounded soldiers who need further attention back in the
United States. We also move DPW personnel, service civilians and
other branches of the military."
Other means of transportation used during the exercise were the
C-130 and the C-9 Nightingale in the sky and ambulances and High
Mobility Multipurpose Vehicles on the ground.
"It gives us a more realistic handle on what we're doing. Aircraft
actually land in an Air Force base in Japan from Korea with the
simulated wounded patients. Those patients move from the Air Force
base to here where the medical care is,"he said.
After the patients get their prescribed medical care, they're
moved back to the Air Force base. Then they either return to duty or
are transported back to the United States for further medical
attention. Parkinson said when a patient comes to be treated at the
hospital, they can only stay at the field hospital for a limited
amount of days.
"At that point, we have to get them out of there to make room for
others coming in. We all have to work in sync to get the patients in
and out of there in a timely fashion,"he said.
Generally the peak time for transportation is when we go on the
offensive because we're sending more personnel into harm's way, said
Parkinson.
"Even though we don't want the 'Bad guys'to know, we need to have a
good idea when the offensive is going to begin so we can make plans
for that accordingly and coordinate that in our hospitals,"he said.
According to Parkinson, transportation for the exercise is very
easy because all the vehicles are on 24-hour standby for mission
support.
"We have more than enough runways, parking areas and landing zones
for all the vehicles. The primary means of evacuation is the
helicopter, but if the weather got bad, the ambulances would be
employed,"said Parkinson. "Transportation plays a major part in MEDEX
2000 because it's an exercise to see what the abilities of our field
hospital are,"he said.