Under pressure, under fire: Training preps medics to save lives on the battlefield

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-CAMP BULLIS, Texas –Before military medical personnel face the chaos of a battlefield, they must learn to provide lifesaving care when conditions are anything but controlled. At Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis, the 937th Training Support Squadron prepares active duty, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve medical personnel for those challenges through five different courses; Expeditionary Medical Readiness Course, Expeditionary Medical Support, Ground Surgical Team, Patient Decontamination and Aeromedical Evacuation and Patient Staging Course.

"There is only one training support squadron across the Air Force Medical Service," said Lt. Col. Mark Hassett, commander, 937th Training Support Squadron. "The 113 members of the 937th TRSS are vehemently committed to producing warrior medics and ensuring they are prepared when they go downrange."

The training bridges the gap between clinical medicine and operational environments, teaching medical personnel to make critical decisions while treating casualties, working as a team and preparing patients for evacuation.

For many Airmen, that transition begins with the two-day Expeditionary Medical Readiness Course. The course provides hands-on instruction in Tactical Combat Casualty Care and lifesaving interventions for personnel across 16 medical Air Force specialty codes.

"We teach the fundamentals of Tactical Combat Casualty Care with a hands-on approach to lifesaving combat medic interventions," said Staff Sgt. Michelle Garcia, an EMRC instructor. "This is their foundational exposure to the real-life experiences they might face down the line."

For medical personnel accustomed to treating patients in a controlled hospital environment, the training offers a different perspective.

"In a hospital setting, staff typically receive patients who have already been treated and stabilized," Garcia said. "They may never otherwise experience a high-stress, tactical scenario where they actually have to apply tourniquets to stop massive bleeding or perform emergency airway interventions themselves."

The course also emphasizes teamwork. Students from different medical specialties train together, learning to apply their individual skills as part of a small team operating in stressful and unpredictable conditions.

"They have to be able to work in austere, highly unpredictable deployment scenarios, utilize their clinical skills appropriately and make rapid, critical medical decisions on the fly as a unit," said Staff Sgt. Aaliyah Fernandez-Vineski, a surgical services specialistand GST ground supervisor.

Fernandez-Vineski draws on her experience during a deployment to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, during the U.S. troop withdrawal to prepare the next generation of medical teams.

"Having been in that environment, I wanted to teach so I could help build the next generation of teams heading out into this rapidly evolving battlespace," she said. "This training means the world to me, but I know it means even more to our heroes downrange, who deserve the absolute best quality of care on the worst day of their lives."

Once patients are stabilized on the ground, another challenge begins: getting them safely to the next level of care.

The Aeromedical Evacuation and Patient Staging course teaches medicalpersonnel to safely stage, triage and stabilize patients for transport. Students learn to lift and move patients, build patient pallets, operate within staging facilities and configure and load aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules and KC-135 Stratotanker.

"Our primary focus is making sure our members are trained to safely stage, triage and stabilize patients so they are secure for flight," said Tech. Sgt. Imelda Herrera, a 937th TRSS instructor. "This training gives them the vital foundation they need to perform when the pressure is on."

Instructors add environmental and psychological stressors to make the training more realistic. San Antonio's summer heat adds a physical challenge, while simulated battlefield sounds, including gunfire and explosions, force students to maintain situational awareness while caring for patients.

"The heat actually becomes part of the training," Herrera said. "You're tired, you're working hard, and depending on where you deploy, those are exactly the kinds of conditions you will face."

The realism is supported by the course's 28-member instructor core, whose collective experience includes aeromedical evacuation units, patient staging facilities and tactical medical teams.

"Our cadre do extremely well tailoring their exercise scenarios to meet changes in the operational environment," Hassett said. "Over the last year, we've introduced longer patient hold times, resource constraints, increased drone attack scenarios and a greater focus on behavioral health response to ensure our medics are ready for today's fight."

That experience allows instructors to bring lessons from operational environments directly into the classroom and training field.

"Collectively, our experiences allow us to paint a much clearer picture for our students," Herrera said. "It's an incredible opportunity to teach from real-world lessons and help prepare them for what lies ahead."

The training ultimately serves a mission larger than any single course or graduating class.

"Our personnel are the support engine and pillars of the 937th Training Group's ability to deliver warrior medics to the operational Air Force," Hassett said. "This group supports the 13,000 medics who attend technical or advanced training annually. Without them, the mission stops."

For the 937th Training Support Squadron, that mission comes down to one thing: ensuring medical personnel are ready when someone needs them most.

"They will do whatever it takes to execute that mission, because at the end of each training day is a patient, a family member, a coworker, or a friend who our students will be taking care of," Hassett said. "It's that simple.

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