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    Pa. Medical Soldiers conduct mass casualty training

    Pa. Medical Soldiers conduct mass casualty training

    Photo By Staff Sgt. Coltin Heller | Soldiers assigned to 108th Area Medical Support Company, 213th Regional Support Group,...... read more read more

    FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Medical Soldiers with 108th Area Medical Support Group, 213th Regional Support Group, Pennsylvania Army National Guard held a cumulative training event during annual training here June 13, 2017.

    The Soldiers participated in a mass casualty exercise, combining the training and skills they learned and applying those skills to treat simulated casualties.

    "Today we’re going into a [mass casualty] situation, pretty much how we would operate in a deployment setting,” said Spc. Duriq Coles a combat medic with 108th Area Medical Support Group.

    These Soldiers spent the first part of annual training learning and refreshing various medical skills essential to their military occupational specialty.

    “We’ve done exercises in the past week and a half,” said Staff Sgt. Larry Bergey, also a combat medic with 108th Area Medical Support Group. “We started across the street at the [medical simulation training center] where we did strictly medical skills training,” he continued.

    The Soldiers used special mannequins which simulated breathing, heart rate and other functions to practice their medical skills such as intubation and tracheotomy and other airway and breathing restoration techniques.

    “The training we did was to re-evaluate the casualty assessments of all our medical skills, such as our treatments for airways, breathing circulation and hemorrhage,” said Coles, who calls Philadelphia home. “We also went over scenarios that would test whether or not we were effective in that training.”

    The Soldiers began their training at the Medical Simulation Training Center before moving to the Medical Battalion Training Site where they immersed themselves in real world scenarios and applied their skills. The Medical Battalion Training Site houses several rooms featuring different scenarios, such as a care under fire and medical evacuation.

    “We came to the [Medical Battalion Training Site] and focused more strictly this week on trauma skills,” said Bergey, speaking on the transition in training.

    Coles, who participated in the scenarios, viewed the training as valuable not only for him, but for the unit as a whole.

    “We had a care under fire scenario, where we would go in and we would practice care under fire, as far as the hemorrhaging was concerned,” said Coles. “We worked in small elements of three to four people to a team to be able to develop that communication that we needed whenever we’re working as a team.”

    “Today we set up a [battalion aide station],” said Sgt. Christopher Dowey, a combat medic with 108th Area Medical Support Group. “We have to practice for being overwhelmed on casualties and limited supplies. “

    Soldiers from the 108th Area Medical Support Group evacuation platoon secured the simulated casualties and evacuated them to the battalion aide station in ambulances. Once at the battalion aide station, Soldiers from the treatment platoon off-loaded the wounded and began treatment on them.

    “Our [evacuation] platoon is out there picking up casualties from the [casualty exchange point], while the treatment platoon is back here treating them in the triage area, that way we can provide the next level of care,” said Coles.

    Although stressful, the training provided valuable experience to the 108th Area Medical Support Group Soldiers.

    “It adds value to overall unit readiness by training for what our job is and providing the opportunity for all our medics to further their skills outside the classroom environment by giving them a practical exercise and showing them new ways and methods to learn things,” said Bergey.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 06.13.2017
    Date Posted: 06.22.2017 09:31
    Story ID: 238061
    Location: PA, US

    Web Views: 23
    Downloads: 0

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