By 1st Lt. Nikolaj Grøn
Danish Home Guard Public Affairs

RAPID CITY, S.D. – Whether the volunteer soldiers from Army National Guard or the Danish Home Guard are supporting their mission in homeland defense or are deploying overseas, first-aid training is always important to master. It can – literary – save human lives.

This is why the motivation is high when first-aid instruction is on the agenda at the South Dakota National Guard’s Golden Coyote training exercise in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The participating soldiers at Golden Coyote are even more motivated by the training environment. For many new National Guard soldiers, it’s the first time they get the opportunity train together with soldiers from other countries, and for the soldiers of the Danish Home Guard, it is the first time they are participating in an exercise in the U.S.

Soldiers from the 860th Military Police Company, Arizona Army National Guard of Tucson, conducted the training with the Danish platoon for two days. Soldiers from the two units participated in a joint instruction in first-aid, which was conducted by both Danish and American instructors.

Spc. Jackie Rivera, of the 860th, was the assistant instructor and gave the first lecture. In her civilian career, Rivera works at a hospital as a patient care technician.

“It has been a great opportunity to train with the Danish soldiers,” said Rivera. “We have been integrated fairly easily and the instruction in first-aid went really well.”

The training focused on how to assess a wounded person and how to control bleeding, said Pvt. Thorvaldur, a first-aid instructor with the Danish Home Guard.

“The Americans are pretty good. They know what they are doing and that makes it much easier,” said Thorvaldu. “My assistant was quite good and a capable person. The Golden Coyote exercise is a great opportunity because we get to train with units and material that we can’t do at home.”

Besides first-aid training, the two platoons have also conducted joint training of standard operating procedures, cordoning and mounted attacks.

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