When I got back from Bushmaster/Kerkeschner 6 of the MS2's from USUHS (myself included) started a “summer experience” at Ft. Belvoir, VA spending two weeks with the 12 AVN unit. The unit is basically a Blackhawk squadron responsible for the Capital area military aviation functions, with attached medical, engineering, and fixed wing aircraft companies. They do everything from flying Generals around or transporting the engineering company to a disaster relief site (the pentagon after 9/11 or the mines in West VA after collapse), to search and rescue ops on area water ways. That afforded us a couple of great flights. One was in a Blackhawk to NYC to see the Statue of Liberty and Ground zero (up close, from the air) returning to VA along the New Jersey shore line (dodging kites and waving at kids) and making a stop at the hangar where the Hindenburg was built. The hangar is so big that they have these adult sized trikes to ride around in the hangar so that they can get around a little faster. Another flight was in a Huey and took us around the capital to see the monuments (see photo). Another couple of days we spent with the flight doc for the 12 AVN, seeing patients, playing basketball and eating ice cream cake.
Two more days we spent with the engineer company, during their ropes training course, learning how to tie some basic rescue knots and repelling off their 50 foot wall and their helicopter skid. The skid repel was pretty wild. You stand on this skid (roped in) and let your rope out until you’re parallel with the ground, feet still on the skid. This part is pretty similar to what you’d do on the wall, but the difference is, when they say go, you hop and drop, letting yourself free fall as long as you want, then pulling the rope behind your back to arrest the fall which makes for a very fast and very fun ride if you choose to make it that way. If you play that thing right, you can swing all over the place on that rope. Some of the guys (previously trained) would ride half way down then flip around and repel head first with a foot wrapped around the rope. The last day of our time with 12 AVN they had a battalion meeting at which we gave a sexually transmitted diseases presentation, which they seemed entertained by. At the end of the meeting, the unit commander called us up and gave us the Commander’s and Command Sergeant Major’s battle coins in appreciation for our little STD chat and for our commitment to serving the soldiers through medicine. I’m not generally a huge fan of pomp and circumstance, but it was a motivating experience to be recognized as the future of Army medicine like that. The commute was killer (55 miles each way) but the experience was certainly memorable.
