Gold Griffin medics conduct casualty evacuation training

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Kissta DiGregorio | Spc. Jason Fraleigh, a medic with C Company, 407th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team bandages a wounded soldier during a mass casualty evacuation Aug. 12. The C Company medics conducted a three-day training event practicing casualty evacuations, triage and treatment of patients.  

FORT BRAGG, NC, UNITED STATES

08.16.2010

Story by Sgt. Kissta DiGregorio 

82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Office

FORT BRAGG, N.C. – Injured soldiers screamed for help. One gasped for air, struggling with a sucking chest wound as another demanded to know if his buddy was still alive.

Dust clouds hovered over the road as a five-vehicle convoy sped to the scene. As the vehicles slid to a halt, medics leapt from the trucks and took cover behind trees, seeking shelter from incoming fire. They positioned themselves over their wounded comrades to protect them from enemy rounds as they returned fire with M4 carbines.

Honing their skills in casualty evacuation, route reconnaissance, communication, and triage and treatment of patients, medical personnel with C Company, 407th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team conducted casualty evacuation training over the course of three days.

The final mission for the company was a mass casualty evacuation, a situation in which the number of casualties is larger than the medical team. Seven medics responded to a medical evacuation request from A Company soldiers who were attacked while operating a tactical water purification system. The team arrived at the scene, deep in the woods of Jessica landing zone, to find 10 wounded soldiers lying on the ground surrounded by land mines.

They immediately got to work, carefully placing each step to avoid setting off any unexploded ordinance. They began treating wounds, triaging patients depending on the severity of their injuries, and making conversation with the wounded to keep them calm to prevent shock while they did their job.

Injuries were severe, ranging from a sucking chest wound to a soldier with arm and leg wounds that would require amputation. In a burst of smoke, one medic was killed as he turned over a patient that was laying face-down in the dirt. The patient had been strapped with a suicide-bomb vest that detonated when his body was moved.

Several times, they took fire from the wood line as opposing forces crept through the brush to prevent them from treating the wounded or getting out of the area safely. However, the medics were not deterred by the barrage. They tied off tourniquets to soldiers who were bleeding out and inserted a chest tube into a soldier who was having trouble breathing, before lying on top of their patients and returning fire. Those whose patients were stable ran from cover to cover to get a better shot at the enemy. Although their job is to keep soldiers alive, these medics are first and foremost, Paratroopers.

In the few instances when firing ceased, they quickly returned to their mission. Their ears were still ringing from the boom of the artillery fire, but it was quickly punctuated with the shouts of the wounded.

With the patients stabilized and able to be transported, they were strapped to litters as the medics maneuvered them into the backs of the trucks. The convoy traveled to an ambulance exchange point where they met with more medical personnel in emergency vehicles. Patients were handed off and placed in the ambulances where their injuries were reevaluated. This trade simulated the exchange of patients from line unit medics to a level two care facility where they could receive additional treatment. “We provide life support for trauma patients we receive from the field,” said Spc. Christopher Quick, a C Company medic working at the Advanced Trauma Life Support facility. A line medic’s job is to keep them alive long enough to get there.

Once the ambulances were loaded to capacity with wounded soldiers, they were trucked to the ATLS. There, wounds were cleaned, IVs inserted, and bandages changed. Two patients were taken to the operating room tent for surgery due to their extensive injuries.

This stage in the treatment process, level two of the five levels of care, is a halfway point of treating wounded soldiers in the field and getting them to a hospital. “We stabilize, treat, and prepare for the transportation of traumatic patients,” Quick said.

Although while on a deployment to a combat zone, patients would be more likely to be evacuated by helicopter instead of a truck, “the treating and triage of patients isn’t going to change,” said Capt. Francis Cicchini, C Company commander.

The entire exercise went quickly, evacuating, triaging, and treating 10 patients in about 40 minutes, all while taking fire and laying suppressive fire, Cicchini said.

C Company First Sgt. Chris Jones agreed that the medics were quick to complete their mission, and that is was a good opportunity for inexperienced medics to get hands-on training. “It was a chance to introduce some of our new soldiers to the mission in a field setting,” Jones said. “This is realistic,” he said. “This is what can happen down range.”

• Date Taken: 08.16.2010
• Date Posted: 08.16.2010 15:30
• Story ID: 54669
• Location: FORT BRAGG, NC, US