Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Charlotte Reavis | CAMP TAJI, Iraq –Warrant Officer Evelyn Ayala, of the 321st Sustainment Brigade,...... read more read more
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CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Imagine being in the middle of Iraq, coming up to a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, looking inside and seeing several of your fellow soldiers with bloody wounds calling for assistance. It’s a situation no soldier wants to think about or encounter.
For the members of the 321st Sustainment Brigade, this was the training exercise they got to experience July 26, just outside of base in the Amber Zone.
“The purpose of this training exercise was to identify deficiencies in the Camp Taji medical evacuation standard operating procedure and see where we can expedite response times,” said Sgt. 1st Class Roberto Garcia, one of the exercise coordinators with the 321st. “This training event included various members of the Coalition Forces on Taji that monitor or have command and control over operations in this sector.”
The training began early that morning with an advanced team of soldiers going out to the Amber Zone and staging the MRAP Maxx-Pro, as if it had gone over unexploded ordnance, per the scenario. The medical team members then dressed soldiers with moulage, or simulated injuries and blood, and had them wait in the MRAP until the convoy could arrive.
“This training took advantage of the current environment where actual missions are conducted,” Garcia said. “It also incorporated moulage to give a realistic feel to the injuries and allow the combat lifesaving personnel to react and treat them.”
Once the main convoy arrived, the CLS soldiers quickly acted and started to address the situation and the casualties. They were met additional difficulty as multiple points of entry into the vehicle were simulated as damaged, cutting off their access. The soldiers had to react swiftly, knowing their overall reaction time was being looked at closely.
“It’s basically herding cats in a hurricane,” stated Staff Sgt. Jeremy Boyd, a Role 1E senior medic of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and one of the observer controller/trainers for the event. “These soldiers are essentially coming in, trying to treat the casualties with the kit that they have and the number of people that they have, in order to achieve the best outcome.”
Boyd, a New Zealand ANZAC soldier, was not the only member of the Coalition Forces working with the 321st for this training event. The exercise also included the Australian counterparts of ANZAC as the quick reaction force team.
Once the CLS soldiers got the casualties assessed, they called for the Australian QRF, who arrived to transport the casualties to the MASSCAS hospital on Camp Taji via medical evacuation.
“You may get taught different ways to put on a bandage, different procedures, different levels of priority, but ultimately; in plain speak, you are there to treat the casualty, do the best you can with the kit you have and get them out,” Boyd said. He continued that being shown the way other countries and militaries perform these tasks also gives you an idea of the bigger picture.
Once the simulated casualties arrived at the hospital, they were immediately downloaded, and the hospital had to enact its mass casualty procedures and treat the patients. The patients were treated as if they were real patients and the hospital had to go through all the procedures required for each unique set of injuries.
“It’s always good to see that the more things change, the more things stay the same,” Boyd said. “You’re trained slightly different, but the outcome is the same.”
Once the hospital fully assessed all the casualties and simulated the appropriate care each should receive to sustain them, the exercise concluded. From there, representatives from each force and section showed up to conduct an after-action review.
“We came out of it with what we need to do to improve the processes,” said Boyd. “There were a lot of learning points, a lot of constructive points that came out of it.”
The Coalition Forces agreed during the AAR they all had lessons learned during this exercise and will continue to improve upon each of their standard operating procedures in place and continue with combined training exercises like this.
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2018 13:02 |
| Story ID: | 287146 |
| Location: | CAMP TAJI, IQ |
| Hometown: | BATON ROUGE, LA, US |
| Web Views: | 170 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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