109th Airlift Wing to conduct national disaster medical system exercise at Stratton Air National Guard Base

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Members of the 109th Airlift Wing during a 2015 medical evacuation drill.

STRATTON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, SCOTIA, NY (08/01/2017) (readMedia)-- The New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing will participate in a National Disaster Medical System field training exercise Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 2 and 3, at Stratton Air National Guard Base.

The exercise, Empire Strike, will include a simulated natural disaster in Schenectady County in which the local hospitals reach maximum capacity and request aeromedical evacuation from the Wing's 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron.

Department of Homeland Security, the Albany Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Health and Human Services, National Disaster Medical Systems, local emergency medical service agencies, and the Civil Air Patrol will also participate.

Members of the press will have the opportunity to observe the exercise on Thursday, Aug. 3.

WHO: Personnel from the 109th Airlift Wing, Department of Homeland Security, the Albany Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Health and Human Services, National Disaster Medical Systems, local emergency medical service agencies, and the Civil Air Patrol.

WHAT: During the exercise patients will be stabilized for transport, loaded into a C-130 and evacuated to practice the routines which are required during an actual medical evacuation.

The members of the 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and civilian medical personnel will also practice the tasks they will conduct on the aircraft. Patients, being simulated by Civil Air Patrol cadets, will be transported to Stratton ANGB where members will conduct training missions to simulate the evacuation of patients to outside the local area for further movement to definitive care.

WHEN: 12:45 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017.

WHERE: Stratton Air National Guard Base, Maple Avenue, Scotia, N.Y.

For access to this secure military facility contact Master Sgt. Catharine Schmidt at 518-344-2423.

Coverage opportunities:

At 1 p.m., an aeromedical flight will land and offload simulated patients at Stratton Air National Guard Base. At 3 p.m., simulated patients will be loaded onto a second flight which will subsequently take off.

Media will have an opportunity to view the exercise and collect still and video imagery. Col. Brian Backus, the 139th Aeromedical Squadron commander, will be available for interviews and can explain the exercise.

BACKGROUND:

National Disaster Medical System

The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is a federally coordinated system that augments the nation's medical response capability. The overall purpose of the NDMS is to establish a single integrated National medical response capability for assisting state and local authorities in dealing with the medical effects of major peacetime disasters and to provide support to the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs medical systems in caring for casualties evacuated back to the U.S. from overseas armed conventional conflicts.

Stratton Air National Guard base is a Federal Coordinating Center. Federal Coordinating Centers recruit hospitals and maintain local non-federal hospital participation in the NDMS, coordinate exercise development and emergency plans with participating hospitals and other local authorities in order to develop patient reception, transportation, and communication plans, and during system activation, coordinate the reception and distribution of patients being evacuated to the area.

At the disaster site, patients will be stabilized for transport. In most cases, patients will be evacuated by the Department of Defense aeromedical evacuation system. At the airport of the NDMS reception area, patients will be met by a local medical team that will sort, assess, and match those patients to participating hospitals, according to procedures developed by local authorities and the local area's NDMS Federal Coordinating Center. Patients will be transported to participating hospitals using locally available ground and air transport.