3rd Medical Battalion conducts casualty care field training exercise on Okinawa

Photo By Cpl. Eric Arndt | Petty Officer 3rd Class Sherod Williams (left) and Seaman Jerry Williams prepare an IV for a simulated casualty, Feb. 26, during 3rd Medical Battalion's field training exercise at Landing Zone Owl. The training's focus was setting up and operating a field medical emergency room, which included a triage area and stabilization center, as well as setting up a mobile Forward Resuscitative Surgical System.  

03.07.2008

Story by Lance Cpl. Richard Blumenstein 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

By Richard Blumenstein
3rd Marine Expeditionary Force Public Affairs

CENTRAL TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, Japan — Role players came in by the truck load, screaming, pretending to cling to life and covered with fake blood. No bell needed; class was in session for the 3rd Medical Battalion Sailors. The subject: saving live

Sailors from 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, conducted a field training exercise on Camp Hansen's Landing Zone Owl Feb. 26, focusing on setting up and operating a field medical emergency room, which included a triage area, a stabilization center and a mobile Forward Resuscitative Surgical System.

The training involved 50 doctors and corpsmen, and 15 role players.

Once battalion personnel reached the training site, they immediately began setting up and preparing for incoming patients.

A short time later, trucks filled with the wounded drove into the site. Some of the mock injured were screaming, spewing fake blood or acting violently, but all were there to help make the training as realistic as possible.

"If you're in a combat zone and you think you're not going to hear screaming, you're living in a fairy tale," said Seaman Jerry Williams, a corpsman with B Co. "The role players help us prepare for those real life situations."

Before moving the wounded into triage, the area where corpsmen evaluate physical condition and sort patients based on the severity of injuries, corpsmen searched patients for weapons, according to Seaman Apprentice Robert J. Blehm, a corpsmen with B Co.

"When you see your first patient, it's like a surprise," Blehm said. "You don't know what you're getting into. Some patients are calm, some violent, others are manic."

From triage, corpsmen sent patients to either the mobile FRSS, the stabilization center, or a holding area based on severity of wounds.

Patients with serious wounds not requiring surgery received treatment in the stabilization
center while the critically injured, requiring immediate surgery, were sent to the mobile FRSS.

Stabilized patients or patients with minor injuries were sent to the holding area to await evacuation by CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.

"FRSS is surgical intervention to save life, limb or eyesight," said Lt. Kevin Bailey, commander of B Company, 3rd Medical Battalion. "We call it damage control surgery."

In the mobile FRSS, surgeons and anesthesiologists performed simulated operations including everything from amputations to stopping internal bleeding.

"It's the bare bones of what we have to do surgically to keep the patient alive," said Lt. j.g. James A. Kaup, a trauma nurse with Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Med. Bn.

Once patients were stabilized, they were transported to a helicopter for evacuation.

"I spent most of my morning on the helicopters evacuating patients," said Seaman Apprentice Cody Hutchison, a corpsmen with B Co. 3rd Med Bn. "This training was intense."

• Date Taken: 03.07.2008
• Date Posted: 03.07.2008 05:12
• Story ID: 17099