1st SOSS airmen teach Tactical Combat Casualty Care

Photo By Sgt. Nathan Booth | Master Sgt. Jason Douville, Operational Support Medical Flight, 1st Special Operations Support Squadron, 1st Special Operations Wing, demonstrates the use of the Combat Action Tourniquet for Jordanian medical staff at the National Emergency Medical Service Education Center in Amman, Jordan May 19. Douville and other Air Force medical personnel gave their Jordanian counterparts a class on recent updates to Tactical Combat Casualty Care as a part of Exercise Eager Lion 12, an exercise designed to strengthen military-to-military relationships through a joint, multinational approach to meet current and future complex national security challenges, including 19 nations and more than 11,000 participants.  

AMMAN, JORDAN

05.19.2012

Story by Sgt. Nathan Booth 

U.S. Special Operations Command Central

AMMAN, Jordan – Airmen from the Operational Support Medical Flight, 1st Special Operations Support Squadron, 1st Special Operations Wing, traveled to the National Emergency Medical Service Education Center in Amman to update Jordanian medical professionals on the latest procedures and technology in Tactical Combat Casualty Care May 19.

The classes were part of Exercise Eager Lion 12, a multinational exercise including 19 nations and more than 11,000 participants designed to strengthen military-to-military relationships through a joint, multinational approach to meet current and future complex national security challenges.

“It’s very important that we have our instructors trained well to be able to distribute this standard to our soldiers and officers in all of Jordan’s armed forces,” Col. Rateb Abuzaid, director of NEMSEC, said. “Our instructors were ready to attend this course.”

While most of the class was a refresher on battlefield medical care, the Airmen introduced a few new pieces of technology, like the Combat Action Tourniquet.

“Their knowledge level was very high,” Master Sgt. Jason Douville, OSMF, 1st SOSS, 1st SOW said. “They were versed on and have used most of the equipment, except for some of the new stuff that we brought.”

Douville said the course was primarily to prepare the students to teach TCCC to fellow Jordanian Armed Forces members.

“It’s always good to go into another country and teach the local government medical personnel our techniques because that makes them more self-sufficient and self-reliant,” Douville said.

Capt. Rob Clontz, OSMF, 1st SOSS, 1st SOW, said the medical courses and tactical portions of Eager Lion 12 are similar.

“It’s part of the mission,” Clontz said. “You have your ground forces that get together and exchange information and tactics. We can do the same in the medical field. It’s not really that much different in my mind.”

Abuzaid said this kind of exchange, updating courses of instruction and introduction to new equipment, is critical for his staff.

“I hope this cooperation will continue,” Abuzaid said. “It’s very important to get the experience from people who specialize in this.”
Clontz, however, said the benefits go both ways.

“The students were very engaged with the course,” Clontz said. “I thought it was fun. I like that interaction, both as instructor teaching the students, but also as a U.S. service member working with a partner nation.”

• Date Taken: 05.19.2012
• Date Posted: 05.27.2012 09:45
• Story ID: 89057
• Location: AMMAN, JO