Members of Iowa’s 294th Medical Company Area Support unit lugged a simulated patient across the grass and toward a hypothetical exit point within Decorah’s Will Baker Park near Pulpit Rock. The National Guard unit made the trip to Decorah to train among the area’s hills and bluffs. (Photo by Seth Boyes)
By Seth Boyes,
Members of Iowa’s 294th Medical Company Area Support unit lugged a simulated patient across the grass and toward a hypothetical exit point within Decorah’s Will Baker Park near Pulpit Rock. The National Guard unit made the trip to Decorah to train among the area’s hills and bluffs. (Photo by Seth Boyes)
The distinct profiles of military trucks and the dozens of uniformed National Guard members milling about near Pulpit Rock were enough to draw some concern from passersby Monday morning. But, despite the energetic shouts echoing from the hillsides, the situation was a simulated one.
Iowa’s 294th Medical Company Area Support unit from the city of Washington was conducting a training exercise near the local landmark.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Hickenbottom said the 294th’s main goal that morning was learning to properly move a patient. He explained the terrain in the Washington area — about 140-miles south of Decorah — is relatively flat, making such training relatively easy. He said officials wanted to train the 294th in areas without much even footing — like that found in Decorah.
“When you’re on a steep incline or decline that’s unsteady with rocky terrain, and when you can’t have four people on it based on the narrowness of the trail — and now, instead of moving 10 feet, it’s 100 meters — that has a real-world application when things get real and difficult,” Hickenbottom said. “Our goal is to simulate adverse conditions as much as possible so that, if you’re not in adverse conditions, it’s that much easier — or if you are in adverse conditions, you’re more prepared for it.”
The unit takes part in training events each year, and First Lt. Ethan Deroy said he and others began planning Monday’s exercise approximately a year ago. Some specifics changed as the weeks and months passed, but Decorah was eventually selected as the location for this year’s training. He and Hickenbottom arrived on site the previous day and worked out the final details of the training event — Deroy said Decorah’s hills and bluffs were the perfect terrain for the exercise.
A total of more than 50 members of the 294th were divided into eight teams, each of them using a litter — a piece of equipment similar to a stretcher — to transport a medical dummy along the winding trails in Will Baker Park near Pulpit Rock. They then transferred the mock patient to a sked — a flexible and durable piece of equipment which can be used to drag a patient along the ground. They were then tasked with sliding the secured mannequin down the steep hillside — one which locals often use for wintertime sledding, and which the 294th dubbed the “skedding hill” — before pulling the combined weight of the sked and the patient some 300 feet to a simulated exit point.
Several teams were able to complete the entire exercise in approximately 11 minutes.
Hickenbottom said training events like Monday’s session help guardsmen develop the type of communication skills necessary in a crisis as well as the muscle memory to complete their tasks, should they ever be called to act in a real-world scenario. He indicated the repetition of these skills helps keep adrenaline in check during a crisis.
“When stress is high, you fall back on what you do most,” Hickenbottom said.
Indeed, the distant barks of “down, down, down” mixed with the encouraging cheers of support that rippled across the park’s grassy field drew the attention of cyclists and runners along the nearby trail system that day. Children and adults alike stopped to take in the exercises, and Major Eric Dolash of the 294th said that’s just another benefit to the National Guard’s regular training.
“Being the Iowa National Guard, we try to get within the communities of the state and kind of show our story — show what we do,” he said.
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