1/8 Corpsmen train ANA soldiers as Combat Life Savers

AFGHANISTAN

09.28.2010

Story by Cpl. Joshua Hines 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

MUSA QAL’EH, Afghanistan - The Combat Life Savers course is a training program designed to bridge the gap between basic first aid taught to Marines and the advanced training a corpsman receives. In an effort to help the Afghan National Army become self-reliant, the corpsmen with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 2, began training ANA soldiers to become Combat Life Savers, Sep. 28, 2010.

“Our main goal is to get the ANA medically proficient and medically sound enough to save lives,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph J. Myers, a corpsman with Headquarters Company, 1st Bn., 8th Marines.

According to Myers, a native of Columbia, S.C., the CLS course covers hemorrhage control, tourniquet application, airway management, burn injury, shock and individual first aid along with patient movement, and how to maintain a patient while waiting for higher echelon care. Each subject is covered over a 14-day course, via formal presentation and practical application.

“The CLS training gives the ANA troops more confidence to get out there, patrol their area of operation, and take the fight to the enemy without being worried about something happening to their buddy and not be able to help,” said Myers.

As the ANA troops begin to understand and become confident in their CLS training they come one step closer to being self-sufficient.

“This training is very important, it’s critical for the ANA to be able to depend on their own medics and their basic emergency response crews to save their life,” said Myers.

Knowing how beneficial CLS training is, Petty Officer 3rd Class Rendel E. Cano, a corpsman with Weapons Company, 1st Bn., 8th Marines, expressed his thoughts on the advantages.

“If the ANA is conducting a patrol and they take casualties, this training is going to help them a lot, because what we’re doing for them now, their learning to do, so that when we leave they can secure their area of operations,” said Cano, a native of Miami, Fla.

There was one factor that proved to make the course more difficult for the corpsmen.

“The hardest part of teaching this course to the ANA is the language barrier,” said Cano. “You can circumvent it by using the interpreters, but a lot of the class is lost in translation because you don’t really know what the interpreter is saying, so classes are slow going, but it is well worth the effort.”

With the first class down, the 1st Bn., 8th Marines, corpsmen show their willingness to put in the time and ensure the ANA troops are on their way to becoming true combat lifesavers.

• Date Taken: 09.28.2010
• Date Posted: 10.01.2010 04:23
• Story ID: 57287
• Location: AF