Teamwork: Guardsmen train with Cadets

Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison | U.S. Army Sgt. Zach Brown, a medic, C Company (Medical), 186th Brigade Support Battalion, Vermont Army National Guard, discusses different methods of establishing an airway to members of the University of Vermont’s (UVM) Reserve Officers' Training Corps, in Winooski, Vt., March 3, 2015. More than 80 cadets from UVM’s ROTC program participated in a Combat Life Saver Training event facilitated by members of the Vermont Army National Guard. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Sarah Mattison)  

WINOOSKI, VT, UNITED STATES

03.26.2015

Story by Tech. Sgt. Sarah Mattison 

Joint Force Headquarters - Vermont National Guard Public Affairs

WINOOSKI, Vt. -More than 80 Cadets from the University of Vermont's Reserve Officers' Training Corps participated in a Combat Life Saver training event facilitated by members of the Vermont Army National Guard's C Company (Medical), 186th Brigade Support Battalion.

Over the last three years, this annual event has been valuable to both cadets and medics. Not only does it help to prepare the cadets for their Cadet Leader Course (CLC) after their junior year, but it also allows for the Guardsmen to work with and develop relationships within the community.

"This training event is great because it's beneficial to both units," said Lt. Col. Timothy Knoth, professor of Military Science, Green Mountain Battalion ROTC.
"The Cadets get to interact with junior enlisted soldiers and Non-Commissioned Officers from the National Guard which is one of the components that they might choose to serve in."

"This is prerequisite training for us [the Cadets], but it's also a refresher training for the Soldiers, helping them to develop as small group instructors. It's about teamwork, it's about training, and it's about community. It's the epitome of the relationship that the ROTC and National Guard have. We have students who need to learn and they have instructors that need to practice their craft, it’s mutually beneficial," Knoth said.

Cadets were divided into four smaller groups and passed through a four stage round-robin allowing for intermittent periods of instruction. Cadets had opportunities at each stage to practice with "hands-on" training to increase their proficiency in a practical manner.

Stage one practiced care under fire with mass casualties and hemorrhage control. Stage two covered airway management and reassessing of interventions. Stage three encompassed Nine-Line medevac requests and preparing for evacuation and stage four dealt with injury description, treatment and prevention for environmental considerations.

"The way that we structured it, we wanted it [the course] to be left didactic and more hands on," said Sgt. Dennis Nunez, a medic with 186th BSB and noncommissioned officer in charge of the instructors for the event. "This way we could verbally instruct on the things that we wanted them to learn, but they were also given the opportunity to get hands on, as well as getting used to doing and seeing it."

"I think this is an awesome way to give and take," said Nunez. "It gives us an opportunity to see the future leaders. We've been doing this for a few years now and two of the new LTs in our unit are actually UVM graduates from this program."

2LTs Nicholas Selig and Ryan Zabinski graduated from the ROTC program in May 2014. Both serve as platoon leaders with C Company (Medical), 186th Brigade Support Battalion.

Cadet Molly Kalaher, a Cadet and senior nursing student at UVM has been participating in the joint medical trainings for the last three years.

"We have worked with the National Guard since my freshman year and we have always had a great relationship with them," said Kalaher. "It's nice to have Soldiers with outside experience come to the training. Most of those guys have combat patches from doing actual work as medics."

"As a nursing student, I can't really give enough justice to the teaching they provide. Hands on training is completely different than in a classroom," said Kalaher. "They really hit the nail on the head with teaching us on what is most essential. This is especially important for our upcoming Joint Leader Training Exercise [JLTX], where we're going to have simulated, realistic scenarios of casualties."

This weekend, the Cadets will have an opportunity to put their newly honed medical skills to the test as they prepare for a joint field training exercise with more than 350 ROTC cadets at Camp Ethan Allen Training Site in Jericho, Vt. UVM, along with their associated schools; Castleton State College, the State University of New York at Plattsburg, Saint Michaels College, Middlebury College and Champlain College will host the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Connecticut in the three-day event.

"This will be a culmination of this year's field training and leadership training. It's a scenario-based exercise that's intended to replicate a mini-operational deployment for them [the Cadets]," said Knoth. "For the seniors, it's a culmination of their leadership, for the juniors it's their last validation exercise before they go to Cadet summer training, and for the underclassmen it's really a chance for them to do small unit tactics for the first time."

• Date Taken: 03.26.2015
• Date Posted: 03.26.2015 12:56
• Story ID: 158178
• Location: WINOOSKI, VT, US