Titan Medics in Action

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kristan Campbell

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 39th Medical Group participated in a medical contingency readiness exercise, as part of the 39th Air Base Wing’s mission to seamlessly link with Turkish Air Forces and NATO allies at Incirlik Air Base, Feb. 16, 2018.

During the exercise, 39th MDG service members set up and efficiently treated patients from a secondary facility, in the event that a real-world situation renders the primary medical treatment facility inoperable.

The exercise provided medical personnel the opportunity to identify and fix concerns a day prior to a scheduled power-outage at the medical treatment facility.

“This was a great opportunity, since we had to move to an alternate facility anyway, to practice moving everyone if it was a real world event; not just moving people, but also equipment and vehicles,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Daniel T. Corwin, 39th Medical Group pharmacist. “This allowed us to truly evaluate our capabilities and limiting factors when it comes to what we can do in other facilities.”

The exercise encompassed 15 medical contingency response plan disaster teams who tested their capabilities from the alternate facility in the event of a possible disaster.

“If you think about our mission here at Incirlik AB, we have to be capable of maintaining continuous medical operations wherever we are,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Chaeann C. Bartlett, NCOIC of Medical Readiness. “We exercise to figure out what our strengths are as well as our limiting factors.”

Throughout the exercise, each disaster team packed up their equipment, assessed their ability to provide critical functions at the secondary facility, and continued simulated operations until the exercise completed.

“Our main focus here is readiness, and there is no better way to be ready than to practice like we would play in a real world situation,” said Corwin. “We learned a lot of great lessons and could accurately evaluate our processes and procedures.”