Photo By Sgt. Joe Padula | Spc. David Roberts, a line medic with Company C, 526th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd...... read more read more
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FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — The Army's medics provide medical attention and treatment to wounded Soldiers. Considered the staple of Army combat functionality, Army medics train to perform their medical duties in dangerous and challenging environments. The job carries many responsibilities along with the most their important task, saving lives.
The Army's medics not only administer emergency medical treatment to battlefield casualties, but also assist with outpatient and inpatient care, process in stations, interview patients, record their medical histories, keep health records and clinical files up-to-date, take temperatures, pulse and blood pressures, conduct field sanitation and as of recent provide instructions for unit Combat Lifesaver programs.
The CLS course is the teaching of immediate medical response tactics to non-medic Soldiers. The course's intent is to provide moderate emergency medical training to Soldiers and supply them with the education to properly care for wounded Soldiers in the absence of a combat medic.
The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), knows exactly how valuable the combat medics are to the success of every mission and looks to expand their vast knowledge to every Strike Soldier through the Eagle First Responder course.
The EFR course is a more detailed course geared toward the needs of the Screaming Eagle Soldiers.
"The intention of the course is to teach confidence and competency in the ability to save yourself or your buddy's life," said Spc. David Roberts, an EFR instructor with Company C, 526 Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd BCT. "The EFR course was created approximately 6 years ago by the division and is its version of the Army's CLS course. We have modernized the techniques and tactics to fit our current needs."
Currently, the Strike Brigade is preparing for its scheduled deployment to Afghanistan early this summer, so to ensure proper readiness, the Strike Brigade's EFR course focuses toward the Afghan fight.
"The class has a lot of region specific information including cold-weather injuries, altitude sickness and what Soldiers will encounter while in Afghanistan," said Roberts. "It's going to be different from what this brigade has seen in its previous deployments."
The 2nd BCT has been heavily involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom and is a major reason for the current stability in that region, but this next deployment will have the Strike Brigade within the Afghan borders for its first time, which currently is today's "hot spot" in the Global War on Terror.
"Due to the high intensity and frequency of a fire fight over there, a lot of Soldiers are sustaining wounds caused by gunshot and roadside bombings and this class is oriented to treating those types of injuries," said Roberts. "The course will instill the confidence in Soldiers that they can save somebody's life."
During the course, Soldiers learn the basics in casualty evaluation, airway management, treatment of chest injuries, bleeding control, requesting a medical evacuation and properly treating a casualty while under enemy fire.
"You do not have to be a medic to understand this course and that's the emphasis," said Roberts. "This course is for non-medics to learn medic methods and techniques. It's not going to be the advanced criteria but the baseline information that will save a life in lieu of not having a medic around."
Some of the Soldiers taking the course would agree on the importance of learning the steps of caring for each other while in the heat of battle.
"The most important part (of the course) was care-under-fire while having a focused mind," said Pfc. April Rowser, a special electronics repairer with Company B, 526th BSB. "This is really an eye-opening course in regards to cold weather injuries and trauma treatment."
Besides weather and trauma treatment, the course also focuses on treating casualties involving vehicles. Humvees, Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks, Light Medium Tactical Vehicles are vehicles used by the brigade and may face possible attack during combat.
"We added vehicle extractions and getting patients out because of the great amount of mechanics and drivers and other support personnel in the units," said Roberts. "More vehicle injuries are discussed due to the unit's high use of mounted convoys."
Brigade support battalions sustain all elements of operating forces in theater at all levels of war and are involved in many supporting operations, relying heavily on EFR qualified Soldiers during such missions.
"Being in the BSB we go on missions all the time, whether its recovery, combat oriented, logistics or patrols, having qualified (EFR) Soldiers allows us not to task the medics," said 1st Sgt. William Plummer, first sergeant, Co. B, 526th BSB. "We can now use the EFR Soldiers with the convoys instead of tasking a medic from our medic unit, Charlie Company, which are often used with Brigade missions."
The need for Army health care specialists is in high and great demand. Filling the needs of every unit is difficult, but training unqualified Soldiers helps fill that void.
"We are short across the board on medics," said Roberts. "This course is designed to give (Soldiers) the medical coverage that will ensure that people do comeback from a mission. There were many accounts last deployment where EFR Soldiers rendered the aide."
The overall job of a medic is difficult, but their results are imperative to the success of the mission. By passing along their knowledge and skill-sets, medics have found a way to save lives without initially being there.
| Date Taken: | 01.27.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 01.27.2010 15:52 |
| Story ID: | 44513 |
| Location: | FORT CAMPBELL, KY, US |
| Web Views: | 1,416 |
| Downloads: | 213 |
This work, Strike creates combat effective Soldiers with Eagle First Responder, by SGT Joe Padula, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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