SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Reserve Airmen from the 932nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron (AES) and 932nd Aeromedical Staging Squadron (ASTS) recently participated in a mass casualty training event on June 7, 2025, at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, as part of ongoing efforts to enhance readiness.
The objective of this training event was to stress test the aeromedical evacuation crews with the use of a 910th Airlift Wing C-130H Hercules to receive an excess of wounded personnel in a short period of time in a deployed forward operating location.
The Air Force Reserve provides approximately 80% of the aeromedical evacuation capabilities across the Air Force and can respond globally within 72 hours.
“Our unit trains to be prepared for any contingency, often deploying without specific knowledge of the challenges we will face,” said Lt. Col. Adriana Barnaby, 932nd AES commander. “We must be ready to address critical situations with little to no advance notice.”
The training event focused on aeromedical evacuation, patient staging and critical care, enforcing the importance of the AF Reserve’s role in today’s new strategic environment to include restoring warrior ethos and rebuilding our military.
932nd ASTS personnel played a key supporting role and manned vehicles and loaded and unloaded patients from the C-130.
“The event simulated the high-pressure environment of real emergencies, allowing me to practice essential skills such as rapid assessment, prioritization or casualties, effective communication, and teamwork,” said Senior Airman Logan Malcomb, 932nd AES air evacuation technician.
AE personnel implemented Sort, Assess, Life-saving Interventions, Treatment/Transport (SALT)—a type of triage with focus on mass casualties where all hazards and patient types are considered.
“Our aircrew training flight incorporates realistic, training based scenarios to prepare our team for the complexities of large-scale mass-casualty situations," added Barnaby. "These scenarios are designed to push our limits and simulate real-world conditions, ensuring we are ready for any contingency.”
A distinctive feature of the 932nd AES is that it is one of 31 AE units across the Air Force with four active component AE units, 18 Reserve AE units and 9 Air National Guard units.
96% of the 932nd AES personnel are traditional reserve, part-time Citizen Airmen who engage in reserve training on unit training assembly (UTA) weekends once a month and annual training two weeks a year. When not in training, they go back to their full-time civilian employment.
The AF Reserve force is a vital asset as it delivers approximately 20% of total Air Force capability at just 3% of the budget, providing combat capability at about one-third the cost of the Active Component.
“The mass casualty training event significantly enhanced my preparedness and confidence in responding to large-scale emergencies,” added Malcomb. “This training will help if I am deployed or assigned to a contingency operation.”