Photo By Staff Sgt. Coltin Heller | Soldiers assigned to the 252nd Engineer Company, 103rd Engineer Battalion, 213th...... read more read more
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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – As one of the largest Army National Guards in the U.S., the Pennsylvania Army National Guard stands ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.
Soldiers of 252nd Engineer Company, 103rd Engineer Battalion, 213th Regional Support Group, are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in 2014 to assist in the drawdown. Before they deploy, they receive a variety of training to ensure the completion of their mission.
The soldiers will conduct their training amid the expanse of Fort Indiantown Gap, participating in training ranging from classroom activities such as cultural awareness to weapons qualifications. The first exercise the soldiers conducted was the Combat Lifesaver Course.
The Combat Lifesaver Course provides non-medical soldiers the information and skills to provide lifesaving measures and assist a combat medic if needed during a combat situation.
“If we get into some sort of conflict, we have a good basis and knowledge how to treat a casualty if something does happen,” said Pvt. Zachary Bedford, combat engineer from the 228th Engineer Company, who volunteered to deploy with the 252nd Engineer Company. “We have a good base and the skills to actually do something.”
The soldiers received classroom training first, learning how to treat certain types of wounds and how to evacuate a casualty once treated on site.
“Essentially, it’s teaching them how to treat casualties in a combat situation, based on the tactical situation, what the appropriate treatment is at the appropriate time. That way they’re not causing risk to themselves or their casualties,” said Staff Sgt. Eric Briggs, instructor at the Medical Simulations Training Center.
The classroom portion of class familiarized soldiers with several types of injuries and how to treat them, as well as provided soldiers the opportunity to practice what they learned in small groups.
“We went over thoracic trauma, basically penetrating chest injuries, gunshot wounds, sucking chest wounds, how to patch those up with occlusive dressings. Then we went over how to request medevac, how to fill out documentation on the battle field and tactical casualty movement techniques,” said Briggs.
After the classroom portion, the soldiers put their knowledge to the test in a simulated combat environment, where low lighting and smoke machines producing an obscuring haze limited the soldiers’ vision and sounds of enemy gunfire and explosions echoed throughout the building, making effective communication difficult.
Mannequins compounded the environmental effects by adding real-life effects such as casualty weight and imitation blood.
“Once we actually got into the lanes we did real-life scenarios, it really set in what you actually learned and be able to practice it,” said Bedford, who calls Shippensburg, Pa., home. “I think with the pressure that they put on you and the speed of it, it really puts into your mind what you have to do.”
For soldiers who have yet to deploy, the CLS training expanded on what the soldiers learned during Basic Combat Training.
“They went more in depth,” said Bedford, referring to the training provided by the instructors. “Like in basic training they didn’t teach you how to do a needle decompression and here they actually showed you how to do it before we had to do it.”
For veteran soldiers, the training knocked the dust off them and provided them with new training as well.
“It was pretty similar,” said Spc. Dennis Gongora, a combat engineer with the 228th, who served with the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq and also volunteered to deploy with the 252nd. “It’s more updated information from what we went through in the past. They taught us a lot of new things from what we got taught back then, which is definitely an improvement.”
Despite the pace of the training, the soldiers enjoyed and learned essential skills the course of the training.
“It was intense,” said Gongora, a Lansdale, Pa., native, wiping his brow. “We got some good experience here.”
The soldiers deploying with the 252nd Engineer Company will continue to train for the next two weeks before they leave and continue their training at Fort Bliss, N.M.
| Date Taken: | 11.06.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 11.07.2013 15:53 |
| Story ID: | 116463 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Hometown: | LANSDALE, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Hometown: | SHIPPENSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 566 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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