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usually have to have 3–5 years of ground ambulance paramedic experience in a high- volume system before they are accepted into a civilian f light paramedic program. The Army medics are going through the train- ing programs back to back. The goal of the CCP section is to expose the Army flight medics to as many critical patients of all types as possible. "We will ramp up to four classes per year," explains Sergeant First Class George Hildebrandt, noncommissioned officer-in- charge of the CCP program. "Our goal is to produce 232 f light medics per year going through all three phases of training. The National Guard has the largest need, since a majority of air ambulance units are in the Guard. "The biggest challenge for the Guard personnel is to be away from their normal civilian career for 10 months for training. They will often be deployed immediately after the school for another year. So, they could be away from their home and job for two years. We have at least five National Guard and five Army Reserve slots in each course. The goal is to have all current flight medics upgraded by 2017. The Army plans to double the number of f light medics by 2017 to about 1,200." The Home Station Training Program was established to allow units to send current flight medics to a local civilian paramedic training program to obtain the Phase 2 training. So far it is being used by units in South Dakota and Colorado. This is espe- cially beneficial to National Guard units. The civil program must meet the Army standards and teach the program in the allotted 27-week time frame. The Army then pays for the tuition, fees and books for the program. The National Guard unit then puts the student on order so they get paid while going to school. There is an active duty unit that is sending 11 students through a program in Colorado. The local units find the programs themselves. It is a cost-effective way to train the soldiers and EMSWORLD.com | MARCH 2015 49 Interior view of the new HH-60M air ambulance. Army flight medics train on chest tube placement on a medic wearing a body suit simulator. Flight medic is hoisted into an HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter. Photos by Barr y Smith