Joint Base Lewis-McChord - Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron members from the 446th Airlift ‘Rainier' Wing participated in the annual Patriot Warrior exercise at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, Aug. 9 through Aug. 23.

In a C-17 Globemaster III flight carrying more than 100,000 pounds of equipment and personnel, Joint Base Lewis-McChord members arrived at the bare bones base to begin training.

Patriot Warrior is the Air Force Reserve Command's largest field exercise and is part of the Army's Global Medic exercise.

This joint and multinational exercise is designed for the participants to demonstrate their contingency deployment abilities ranging from base infrastructure buildup to full aeromedical evacuation operations.

The two-week-long exercise began with bare base conditions, and military members were challenged to turn the facilities into a fully functioning base able to accept medically evacuated wounded patients in mobile hospitals.

More than 11,000 members from the U.S. service branches and their Reserve components, including Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps, are participating alongside British, Canadian and Saudi Arabian forces during Patriot Warrior.