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Photo 1 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Emily Baker, a medical material specialist in the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, moulages a simulated chest injury on U.S. Army Sgt. Ryan Carignan, Surgeon Cell, Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, on Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. As part of a joint mass-casualty training exercise, service members performed various tasks in order to locate, secure and rescue simulated casualties. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 2 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Air Force Maj. Aspen Terry, a medical officer with the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, moulages the arm of Staff Sgt. Alex Stojadinovic, 449th Air Expeditionary Group, on Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. As part of a joint mass casualty training exercise, service members performed various tasks in order to locate, secure and rescue simulated casualties. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 3 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron participate in a high altitude, low-opening tandem free-fall jump to bring in a medical doctor, in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. The free-fall jump was conducted as part of a joint training exercise. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 4 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron participate in a high altitude, low-opening free-fall jump in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. The free-fall jump was conducted as part of a joint training exercise. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 5 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Soldiers assigned to 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry Regiment, Texas Army National Guard, prepare to transport a simulated casualty on a litter in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. As part of a joint mass casualty training exercise, service members performed various tasks in order to locate, secure and rescue simulated casualties. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 6 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron and U.S. Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry Regiment, Texas Army National Guard, prepare to move a simulated casualty onto a litter in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. As part of a joint mass-casualty training exercise, service members performed various tasks in order to locate, secure and rescue simulated casualties. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison) (Portions of this image were obscured for security reasons)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 7 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
A Guardsman with the 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry Regiment, Texas Army National Guard, treats a simulated casualty in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. As part of a joint mass casualty training exercise, service members performed various tasks in order to locate, secure and rescue simulated casualties. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 8 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
A Pararescueman from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, cuts through the windshield of an overturned vehicle in order to rescue a simulated casualty in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. The Airmen conducted various extrication techniques during a joint mass casualty training exercise. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 9 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron and U.S. Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard work together to rescue a simulated casualty in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. As part of a joint mass casualty training exercise, service members performed various tasks in order to locate, secure and rescue simulated casualties. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison) (Portions of this image were obscured for security reasons)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 10 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
A Pararescueman from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, cuts through the windshield of an overturned vehicle in order to rescue a simulated casualty in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. The Airmen conducted various extrication techniques during a joint mass casualty training exercise. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison) (Portions of this image were obscured for security reasons)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 11 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry Regiment, Texas Army National Guard, transport a simulated casualty on a litter in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. As part of a joint mass casualty training exercise, service members performed various tasks in order to locate, secure and rescue simulated casualties. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
Photo 12 of 12
Joint Effort for Mass Casualty Exercise
U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron load a simulated casualty onto a litter in Djibouti City, Djibouti, April 24, 2018. The Airmen conducted various rescue techniques during a joint mass casualty training exercise. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison) (Portions of this image were obscured for security reasons)
Photo by: Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison
DJIBOUTI, Africa - Service members assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and Camp Lemonnier participated in a joint mass-casualty exercise, April 24. This exercise enabled multiple units to work together to tackle complex issues, while securing, treating, extricating and evacuating simulated casualties.
The exercise, which started with a simulated improvised explosive device (IED) blast on a convoy, included twenty-five volunteers that had been moulaged with various simulated injuries requiring triage and treatment. Guardsmen from the Texas Army National Guard’s 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry Regiment arrived on scene as the quick-reaction force and secured the area. At the same time, pararescuemen (PJs) from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron (82nd ERSQ) circled above in a C-130J Super Hercules operated by the 75th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, preparing to jump to the site below.
“The overall goal is to demonstrate a capability to interoperate with all of these different partners as part of a mass-casualty exercise,” said 1st Lt. Jake, with the 82nd ERSQ. “We can jump the PJs in, establish site security with the site security team and then the PJs can treat and determine who needs the most critical care.”
The PJs also jumped with a couple of tandem passengers, including the tactical air control party (TACP) and a doctor. After hitting the ground, the doctor took over the casualty collection point and began triaging and treating patients, while the TACP maintained airspace deconfliction and surveyed helicopter landing zones to expedite evacuation of the simulated casualties. Simultaneously, the PJs began extricating individuals that were trapped inside of the crushed vehicles.
Staff Sgt. Matthew, who works in material management support for the 82nd ERSQ, volunteered to be one of the simulated casualties.
“I volunteered because I wanted to support an exercise that could potentially be a real world medevac response,” Matthew said. “I think this [training] is important because being in a deployed environment, this could potentially become a real world situation.”
While planning for the exercise was lengthy, it was training that was well worth the time and effort that it took to put together
“Doing this exercise, not only does it demonstrate that we have these capabilities, but it also means that we are training with these capabilities as we go along,” said Jake. “So if this were to happen real word, then we’ve already done training with these guys and agencies before, so it would be easy to put together different pieces of what we’ve already done today.”
