MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- When someone is in medical distress, an ambulance comes and hopefully a life is saved, but few think about the sailor behind the wheel making sure the patient and fellow corpsman are safe getting to and from medical scenes. That sailor is an ‘EVO’.
An ‘EVO’ is a corpsman who is trained to be an Emergency Vehicle Operator and a group of corpsmen completed their EVO course here June 22, 2012.
“I test them on 4 different maneuvers: the forward serpentine, backward serpentine, blocked lane, and parallel parking,” said Petty Officer Second Class Jessica M. McDurmon, EVO instructor.
All of the sailors were able to practice, had four days of classroom time and a practice driving test without sirens in order to learn before the actual test.
“We’re giving them a chance to work with the ambulance and use the sirens because some people can freak out when the lights and sirens are on,” said McDurmon.
The ambulance has many attributes different from other vehicles, and this course gives sailors the opportunity to get used to the way the vehicle handles and the noises it makes.
“The ambulance is different than other vehicles because it is usually larger and wider than most cars and there are a lot of things that make noise in the background, so they need to learn to tune that out while driving,” said McDurmon.
The sailors learned everything from the basics of where the turn signals are to how the vehicle handles.
“We learned a lot of the smaller basics of emergency driving, like not crossing our arms when we’re turning and other little things like that,” said Seaman Carl C. Cayetano, Robert M. Casey Medical and Dental Clinic corpsman.
Many corpsmen go through EVO training not only to further their careers but to help the Branch Health Clinic with duties and to be sure the station is under the proper care.
“There is always an EVO driver on duty in case something happens,” said Cayetano. “Our job is to always be ready to deliver medical support to anywhere on base and be able to safely return the patient from the scene back to the clinic or where ever they need to go for treatment.”