For some strange reason, someone with a lot of brass on thier shoulder though that testing the idea of a train used for evacuating wounded, with a helicopter delivering the wounded from the front lines, made sense. Who the hell has a medical facility/hospital train? That is stupid.
The Guard crew’s skill on the touchdown impressed their active duty counterparts during Special Operation Forces Arctic Medic 2025, a major exercise held in Alaska in February that brought together Guard, conventional, and special ops teams from active duty, Coast Guard elements, and federal law enforcement, as well as civilian medical teams. The train was stationary for the helicopter landing but then began moving again to continue with the simulated evacuation. “After the helicopter departed, the train returned to the station while follow-on medical training was happening aboard,” a guard spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
The flight, the Alaska Guard said in a release, was part of an exercise to evaluate how patients who are chemically or biologically contaminated might be moved via a hospital train. Soldiers on the train unloaded supplies from the helicopter while it was perched on the platform and Staff Sgt. Steven Gildersleeve, a critical care flight paramedic, was hoisted onto the train to medically evaluate and evacuate a simulated patient.
Having a lot of power and some automated hover capabilities is pretty nice. On the other hand I have crewed on overloaded Huey Gunships in Vietnam where we set one skid on a tree stump and I got out on the skid to help a injured Infantryman climb up into the cabin. This was not a uncommon event as it happened many time with our company and other like companies. Some were far more difficult to say the least! And one more thought. We never trained for these types of issues bas we were flying from early pre dawn ornings to well late that night. Just so you will know A UH-1 Huey has a 100 hour inspection that was not varied very often. We would hit the 100 hour plus number in five days. Door gunners and crew chiefs just flew a different ship. Pilots were held to that 100 hours but some ignored it and just didn't log their name on the aircraft log book. maintenance officers would also turn a blind eye. Best job I have ever had to this day! 116th Assault -Helicopter Company based at the 25th Infantry Division's base camp at Cu Chi in 67, 68,-69 & 70 over 2.5 years.
ReplyDeleteyou just educated me even more! I mean, it makes sense that there was no training for that type of rescue and recovery, but, it would also make sense that they would know prior to sending helos to a combat zone that sometimes they wouldn't always land on all tires and turn off the engine for every stop...
Deleteand a 100 hours between oil changes and tune ups? That's news, but again, makes sense to me.
Interesting that pilots would just not fill in the log book. Really, in the big picture, it just doesn't matter I suppose. History doesn't care at all what we do, or what rules we followed