Michigan Army National Guard’s docs mesh with Latvian medics

RIGA, RIX, LATVIA

10.03.2014

Story by Capt. Douglas Halleaux 

Michigan National Guard

ADAZI, Latvia - Some of the Michigan Army National Guard’s medics are teaming up with Latvian counterparts this week in Adazi, Latvia, to share techniques and create experiences that will make both militaries stronger.

The mission is part of Operation Silver Arrow, a multinational, Latvian-led, training exercise in conjunction with U.S. Army Europe and Operation Atlantic Resolve.

The medics hail from the Michigan Army National Guard’s 1431st Engineer Company, Baraga, Michigan, and are led by 1st Lt. Scott McCormick, a physician’s assistant from the 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, Saginaw, Michigan.

“This week, we’ve been dealing with trauma assessment,” says McCormick. “We’re training for triage, we’re training for initial assessment, and we’re also emphasizing the biggest injuries people sustain in combat scenarios.”

Michigan’s medical staff will include extremity wounds, hemorrhage, compromised airway, and a “sucking chest wound,” or compromise to the chest area allowing air to enter, compressing the lungs and heart, adds McCormick.

Accompanying McCormick and his medics are other members of the 177th Military Police Brigade, Taylor, Michigan, composed of combat and bridge-building engineers, military police, and chemical Soldiers.

“They’re enthusiastic,” says McCormick. “They don’t have nearly the training we do. Their main medics have four weeks of training, while our guys come out of basic training right off the bat with 16 weeks. We have a lot to offer, I think, in the sense that we have a little more experience, a little more understanding of why we’re doing the procedures we do.”

“We would just learn from each other,” says Philip Kangas, one of the mission’s Latvian medics. “We’d see who had the best skills at [the task], see if we could expedite any kind of trauma care that we can do on any casualty.”

Both Kangas and McCormick say the language barrier was the toughest difficulty to overcome, but it didn’t prove to be an obstacle for long.

“We’d just go through the visual of [the procedure], run through the steps of the process, and they would be able to say, ‘yes,’ that they do it the same way,” says McCormick. “They’re up to tune with the procedures we would use. For the amount of training they have, the four weeks, they’re very proficient. I was impressed.”

“Medicine is kind of an international language in itself,” says Kangas. “We just know our job - it’s muscle memory. We know all the steps to do, so before we could say, ‘what do you do next?’ she’d be doing what she’d be doing next.”

Operation Silver Arrow continues through Oct. 5, after which the Michigan Soldiers will prepare to return home.

• Date Taken: 10.03.2014
• Date Posted: 10.06.2014 11:16
• Story ID: 144374
• Location: RIGA, RIX, LV