What’s up Rose? General discharge here. If this is your first time with us, our voices are disguised so we can give you information on just about anything without being detected. Today’s video is going to be discussing the United States Air Force’s special operations surgical teams. Also known as SAST, special operations surgical teams are teams of mobile surgical specialists with advanced medical and tactical training devoted to saving lives anytime and anywhere, and were originally conceived in 2001 and have been operational since 2003.
They provide four unique medical capabilities, advanced trauma resuscitation, tactical damage control, surgery, postop critical care and critical care evaluation. Before we dive into things, make sure to take a moment and show us some love and support by liking our video and subscribing to our channel. Your support is our lifeblood. Do not hesitate to ask us questions. In the comments section below, we check everything special operations surgical teams are fully trained and equipped to operate in austere environments.
Utilizing portable medical equipment. They are capable of having a rapid response to support operations on air, land and sea. They can set up an operating room in a tent or one in the middle of an aircraft. They are highly versatile in where they can perform their medical treatments. Part of this versatility is their ability to operate, but also be medical professionals.
They will set up operating rooms in a hidden location in enemy territory, clearing the rooms and securing the area themselves and setting them up without any support from other soft units. Soft was designed as the tip of the spear in cutting edge medical readiness, with some of their equipment being developed and implemented on the front lines. This has led to innovations in military and civilian medical effectiveness. When sauce team members are not deployed, their duty location is at a civilian level, one trauma center. This enables the whole team to stay together in a continuous training mode so their trauma skills are unsurpassed when they are called upon to deploy.
Once a sauce deployment team is put together, the team members will stay together. Sauce does not rotate members as frequently as other service units. Members of a team can stay a one unit for five or more years. This forms a tight knit team and makes them more proficient at their jobs by working with the same team for many years. Soft has a high op tempo, deploying multiple times.
The teams will be deployed more than they will not be. They participate in full mission exercises with special tactics and other soft units from the other military branches. Even though they spend a lot of time perfecting their medical expertise, they also need to spend time learning special operation skills such as land navigation, shooting packages, breaching, sear jumping and diving. While not every member will have the opportunity to learn all of the trades of being an operator. The option is available based on their team’s needs.
SAST deploys as a six member team composed of an emergency physician, a general surgeon, a nurse anesthetist, critical care nurse, surgical technician, usually an enlisted person, and a respiratory therapist, which is also usually an enlisted person. In order to apply and become a candidate for SAST, you have to be one of those specialties or a physician’s assistant if applicable. And currently serving in the Air Force, it is desired for the medical professional to have deployment experience and have proved themselves to be a great team member. Very rarely can you go straight from civilian medical personnel to SAST. They do two assessments each year or more if needed, where candidates go through two phases of screening.
Phase one is where a panel of officers review and stratify applications submitted by the deadline. Qualified applicants are invited to attend phase two. Phase two consists of a six day in person evaluation. We’ll leave a link in the description to the official Air Force sauce application PdF. Becoming a special operations surgical team member is no easy feat.
The week long selection process during phase two is rigorous. Candidates can expect a ruck run for up to 4 miles, go on long distance runs, calisthenics and aquatic capabilities. Candidates will also complete an indepth psychological evaluation the psychological evaluation is the part most people fail. The details of the psych eval are unknown and should remain that way during the weeklong selection. Candidates must demonstrate teamwork, psychological stability, critical thinking, high stress tolerance, effective communication, sound situational awareness, and leadership traits.
If selected, new team members go through ten months of specialized training before deploying on their first operational mission. The training includes a number of survival, evasion, resistance and escape courses, advanced operational medical training and several months of demanding soft specific operational and tactical training. Just keep in mind it won’t be a pipeline that every single person goes through. While you’ll do the minimum needed, at some point you will break off and work on specific training that your unit you’re reporting to will need. If a candidate is not selected, they may apply for sauce again, but only if they were not removed by the course due to a lack of motivation or capability or if they did not self eliminate themselves from training.
Lastly, if you want an inside look of sauce straight from the horse’s mouth, check out one’s ready’s video on the subject. He interviews two sauce members. We will leave the link to the video in the description. Well, that’s the down and dirty of the Air Force’s special operations surgical teams. If you learned something from this video.
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