185th ARW Medical Group holds TCCC training

Members of the 185th Medical Group held a Tactical Combat Casualty Care exercise for the first time at the 185th Air Refueling Wing last week.

The Airmen trained in skills necessary to maintain deployment readiness and skill currency.

Airman 1st Class Luke Soldati, a 185th aerospace medical technician, explained that members worked on skills that represent those that can be expected from the battlefield.

“Fieldwork consisted of dressing wounds, tourniquets, clearing their airway, respirations and treating them for hypothermia,” he stated, “Ultimately the main goal is to evacuate them and get them to a higher level of care."

Master Sgt. Donovan Masters, 185th Chief TCCC Instructor, explained that the goal of the training is to refresh members on skills that they do not regularly perform.

The group traditionally travels away from the unit for this training but this year the group was able to fully run the program on base.

“The benefit to home station is that it gives us more real-world access to environments that we may see in our daily duties,” said Masters, “Additionally, we have more equipment resources available to us.”

The medical group worked with Airmen from security forces, supply, contingency response and other shops to have the exercise fully equipped, he said.

Masters explained that it is important for members to participate in this training yearly to be prepared for what they can encounter when on-base and or on deployments.

The advanced nature of our job down range makes staying up to date important, he said.

“So, being able to do this training,” Masters explained, “we’re going to be able to provide a better level of care and have better mission success.”