BM 14-03 simulates aircraft mishap

by Senior Airman David Owsianka
51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

7/22/2014 - OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea -- The 51st Fighter Wing conducted a simulated aircraft mishap here today as part of Beverly Midnight 14-03.

The simulated mishap took place to ensure Airmen are ready to handle an emergency management scenario in a real world situation.

"The overall purpose of today's exercise was to test the wing's readiness...we tested the medical group, fire department, security forces and other emergency services," said Capt. James Brown, 51st Fighter Wing Inspector General Inspections team member. "It's important for us to be ready in peace time and war time to be able to fight tonight. We're focusing on 24/7 readiness."

One team that responded to the scene is the 51st Medical Group Field Response Team that is a designated on-scene medical response team for large scale medical emergencies.

The FRT focuses on three "T" aspects: Triage, Treat and Transport.

The triage aspect concentrates on identifying immediate patients. The treat aspect focuses on checking the patients' airway, for bleeding and spine to prepare them for transport. The transport aspect ensures a timely extraction of casualties to the medical building.

"Participating in exercises allows the FRT to prepare for responding to wartime and peacetime scenarios," said Captain Michael Yim, 51st Medical Group flight medicine commander. "During a wartime response we put emphasis on immediate and quick extraction while minimizing the team's exposure to enemy fire. During a peacetime response the threats are limited or non-existent which gives us the ability to focus on patient comfort when transporting."

The simulated aircraft mishap was designed to test contingency emergency operations, one of five priorities identified by the 51st FW IGI team. The priorities include readiness orientation; contingency emergency operations; effective installation command and control, recovery and defense; surge operations; and lessons learned.

BM 14-03 is a modular type exercise that began July 21 and runs through July 25.