SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- The 52nd Medical Group conducted exercise Ready EAGLE March 22 - 26 around various locations on Spangdahlem Air Base.
Ready EAGLE, which stands for Readiness Exercises and Assessments in a Goal-oriented Learning Environment, was a one week training event that culminated in a capstone exercise to test the 52nd MDG’s disaster response capabilities.
“The Medical Readiness office deliberately planned this exercise for over six months, and teamed up with USAFE Readiness counterparts in the preparation of the Ready EAGLE event,” said 2nd Lt. Darryl Scarver, 52nd MDG medical readiness officer. “The team worked diligently to ensure proper pandemic mitigation measures were implemented while still providing valuable didactic training opportunities for the medics of Saber Nation.”
Despite the challenges of hosting a full-scale readiness exercise that stayed within COVID-19 safety parameters, the team was able to pull off one of largest medical exercises in Spangdahlem’s history.
“Our planning team had to overcome challenges such as securing venues large enough for social distancing,” Scarver said. We solicited volunteers from across the Wing to participate in the capstone event, as well as ensuring real-world COVID-19 vaccination operations were executable.”
The 52nd MDG also partnered with the Deutches Rotes Kreuz (DRK) during the exercise, which facilitated partnerships between the base and the host nation.
During the week of the exercise, Saber medics honed disaster response skills such as command and control, patient stabilization, patient decontamination, triage, and disease containment. For over a year, the 52nd MDG has been heavily focused on combating COVID-19. This platform provided an opportunity to refocus on contingency response in support of the 52nd Fighter Wing.
“This was a huge undertaking for our medical readiness office, who worked tirelessly to plan and coordinate all of the details for the week-long event, and the results were incredible,” said Lt. Col. Rebecca Powers, 52nd Medical Support Squadron commander. “As the contingency response teams participated in training events throughout the week, our leadership witnessed the growth in both their skills, as well at their confidence, especially during the “Grand Finale,” the culminating mass casualty exercise.”
According to the base's Medical Readiness Office, exercise Ready EAGLE was the largest medical exercise in the base’s history.