LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas—The 47th Medical Group pushed their abilities in the first Ready Eagle exercise at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, on the week of Jan.13, 2020.
The week-long exercise taught, coached and tested the newly-learned skills the Ready Eagle team brought to the 47th MDG.
“This exercise is intended to help Airmen of every rank by introducing standardized readiness tools for continued self-guided training by team chiefs here at Laughlin or wherever they go next, said Col. Cruz, 47th MDG commander. “Revitalizing our skillsets will provide us the tactics needed to respond to home station medical contingencies.”
Lt. Col. Brian Caruthers, Air Education and Training Command medical readiness division chief, visited the base throughout the week and tracked the training.
“This experience is designed to leave team chiefs and the wing inspection team members a set of standardized training tools and techniques to create their own home station training program,” Caruthers said.
According to 1st Lt. Gabriel Lazurka, 47th Healthcare Operations Squadron medical logistics flight commander, the week of learning is helping them develop mass-casualty treatment skills. They are learning more about their resources and practicing faster response times.
“We are using the crawl-walk-run philosophy here,” Lazurka said. “The first three days are dedicated to training and the concepts learned build upon each other and lead to the capstone event on Friday. This exercise is all about learning and seeing what we can improve.”
According to Cruz, the Air Force Surgeon General said readiness is the number one mission for Air Force medics.
“Ready Eagle training, along with the support of Team XL leadership, base agencies and the Val Verde Regional Medical Center, empower our medics to provide trusted care and deploy mission-ready Airmen,” Cruz said.
Monday through Friday, they care for their military and dependent patients as always, but this week was an opportunity to prepare for the unexpected and learn more about their capacities as a group.