TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The 775th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron conducted their first-ever Negatively Pressurized Conex Lite training in a C-130 Hercules April 20, 2021, at Travis Air Force Base, California.
The NPCL was developed to move exposed or infected, high-consequence infectious disease patients who require contact and droplet transmission precautions.
The training tested the EAES members’ ability to safely transport patients in the NPCL.
“Utilizing and gaining familiarity with the NPCL is the way of the future for how EAES transports patients of any droplet-transmitted infections,” said Lt. Col. Jenice Brown, 775th EAES flight nurse.
The NPCL can accommodate a total of six stretchers and can seat 13 patients.
“The NPCL is much smaller than the regular NPC,” said 1st Lt. Jameson Wilson, 775th EAES health services administrator. “The NPC has a capacity of 22 patient seats and 15 (stretcher) spaces.”
An NPC is too large to fit on a C-130; the NPCL broadens the mobility mission for primary aircraft to be transport patients.
Wilson said being able to train on the C-130 would not have been possible without the help of the 152nd Airlift Wing from Reno Air National Guard Base, Nevada, who volunteered the aircraft for the 775th EAES’ training purposes.
“This is what it means to be ready as a total force,” Wilson said. “We are gaining readiness as AE by utilizing the C-130 and gaining familiarization with the aircraft.”
To learn more about the AE mission visit, https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/490683/air-mobility-command-aeromedical-evacuation/