Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea – Airmen from the 115th Fighter Wing and 128th Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin National Guard conducted joint medical training with the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.

The U.S. medical team worked alongside the PNGDF at the Taurama Barracks Training Cell administering Tactical Combat Casualty Care Level-1 training to PNGDF infantry soldiers.

“The people here have a very high operations tempo and they’ll find themselves using this training in a few months for sure,” said March 2025 Consolidated Exchange Officer-in-Charge Lt. Col. William Civiletta-Kalich, assigned to the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing Medical Group. “The lifesaving skills they are learning today will be an immediate benefit to themselves, the communities they serve, and their country in a very short order.”

PNGDF medics are training alongside the WING in a train-the-trainer concept so they will be able to sustain this type of training in the long term.

“When we deploy, we go places where there are no medical services,” said Maj. Anna Mathew, force matron nursing officer assigned to the PNGDF Headquarters Directorate of Health Services. “We’re training how to give basic first-aid to the public when they deploy.”

The joint medical team will train over a dozen PNGDF soldiers in three days of instruction.