Afghan Border Patrol takes home advanced combat trauma training

CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN

10.10.2010

Story by Cpl. Brian Gabriel Jr. 

Regional Command Southwest

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan—Afghan Border Patrol officers are taking improved combat casualty treatment skills back to their home units to share with fellow ABP officers.

A class of 24 ABP officers successfully completed the final exercise of a three-week medical course, held at the Joint Security Academy Southwest at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, Oct. 10. A handpicked group of U.S. Navy hospital corpsman, representing a wide variety of units within Regional Command Southwest, has been sharing their extensive combat casualty treatment experience with the ABP officers during the past 21 days of the fast-paced course.

“Over the course of the three weeks, we’ve been teaching them in classes and doing practical application exercises,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Jim Wilson, 3rd Marine Air Wing hospital corpsman. “Today is our final test to see where they’re at with their skills. They have been doing extremely well. We’re pretty proud of them.”

The medical course culminated in an all day examination of previously learned skills, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, casualty movement, and wound treatment. All of the day’s tests were performed with a full combat load to further simulate a real-life combat situation.

In order to pass the medical course tests, the students were required to demonstrate above-average proficiency in each test station set up by their Navy mentors. The first station, seemingly the most nerve-racking of them all, required the students to quickly assess and treat an injured soldier.

“The primary station we are focusing on is actual treatment of a casualty,” Wilson said. “The students have to pull the casualty to a safe location and actually treat the injuries as they find them through the processes that we’ve taught.”

During the test, the students are rushed out of their classroom four-at-a-time to find two mannequins, both featuring a wide variety of combat related injuries. After breaking into pairs, the ABP officers have to safely and carefully move their patients to a safer location. While under constant distraction by their hospital corpsman teachers, the students have to successfully treat the injuries, ranging anywhere from a sucking chest wound to an amputated limb.

The students also have to prove their competency in handling an injured patient after successfully treating life-threatening wounds.

“Another station is litter maneuvering and patient handling,” Wilson said. “We are also showing them how to properly load and unload a patient from an ambulance.”

The ABP officers had to make sure to keep their patients as stable and immobilized as possible while loading their mannequins onto the ambulance. After carefully assessing each officer’s performance, the hospital corpsmen awarded the students with either a pass or fail rating. Fortunately, each medical course student successfully passed the final exercise.

Wilson believes the final examination is just as beneficial for the teachers as it is for their students.

“As much of [the test] is for us to actually test the students and make sure they’ve learned the things we’ve taught them, I think additionally it’s really good for them as well,” Wilson said. “It builds morale and lets them know that everything that we’ve taught them came together. It makes sense to them now that they’ve seen it all put together. It also boosts their confidence knowing that they can do it.”

Khan Agha, one of the ABP medical course students, feels confident in his abilities as a combat life saver and looks forward to returning to his unit in Helmand province to share his newly-learned medical knowledge.

“We are confident that we can do everything our teachers have taught us,” Agha said. “Completing the course is not difficult, as long as you concentrate and use all the skills you’ve been taught. It was also helpful that there are many experienced soldiers in our class who shared their medical experience.”

• Date Taken: 10.10.2010
• Date Posted: 10.14.2010 13:25
• Story ID: 58117
• Location: CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF