Marines, sailors on Okinawa team up for realistic life-saving exercise

Photo By Cpl. Paul Zellner | A fire team of Marines carries a simulated casualty to the CH-46 helicopter to get the casualty out of the danger area and to the medical treatment facility during a casualty evacuation exercise.  

OKINAWA, JAPAN

02.04.2010

Story by Cpl. Paul Zellner 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

Swiftly and silently, a fire team approaches the entrance to an unknown building. They stack up, secure the door and in one quick motion they enter.

Shots ring out as they enter the room and the call is made "Man down! Man down!" The next 30 minutes are crucial in the life of the casualty.

Marines from Engineer Maintenance Company, 3rd Maintenance Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 35, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, teamed up Jan. 14 with sailors from 3rd Medical Battalion, CLR-35, for a realistic wartime exercise during the Tactical Combat Casualty Course in the Central Training Area.

"The day's training focused on room clearing and casualty evacuation.

"One of the most important aspects of this training is to instill confidence in the [noncommissioned officers] to be able to lead Marines in a combat environment and gain respect for the non-combat environment," said 1st Lt. Crystal Serrano, commanding officer of Engineer Maintenance Company

"This training is essential for a combat situation because you have to establish that relationship and [standard operating procedures] with the corpsmen in peacetime to ensure success during war," she said.

The Marines and sailors practices room clearing and then went through the procedures for handling casualties and conducting a medical evacuation of the casualty.

The Marines split into three squads with a few corpsmen attached to each. Squad-by-squad, they cleared buildings in which simulated enemy forces, armed with simunition paint round weapons, waited.

If a Marine became a simulated casualty, the other Marines learned to flow into a room and suppress the enemy until it was clear enough for a corpsman to treat the "wounded" Marine. Using the buddy-carry technique, simulated casualties were taken out of the danger area to receive field medical treatment from the fire team's corpsman.

"It's essentially all a team effort, because it takes a team to pull a man out of a danger area, provide security and treat the wounded," said Senior Chief Petty Officer Pete Torres, Company B executive officer, 3rd Med. Bn. "This really displays the true sense of the Navy and Marine Corps team."

"I want to always make sure all Marines under my care are well taken care of and in turn they take care of me with security," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Glenn Rians, attending corpsman, 3rd Med. Bn. "I also want to keep them trained, that way they can give me medical treatment if I'm hurt or not near."

The Marines and sailors learned communication was a vital part of the process.
"We need to be able to communicate between the Marines and corpsman in order to know where each other fits in," said Torres.

"This is the first time our company has worked with a Marine company and we've been doing an excellent job," he said of the two companies working together.

• Date Taken: 02.04.2010
• Date Posted: 02.04.2010 23:47
• Story ID: 44942
• Location: OKINAWA, JP