Global Health Engagement at Flintlock 2019

Photo By Nathan Herring | U.S. medical personnel treat a patient during tactical combat casualty care training held during Flintlock 2019 at Camp Zagre, Burkina Faso Feb. 27, 2019. Flintlock is U.S. Africa Command's premier special operations forces exercise in Africa.  

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO

02.27.2019

Story by Richard Bumgardner 

U.S. Africa Command

Under a hot, dry African sun at Camp Zagre, a small military camp near Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, medics from the Burkinabe military quickly respond to a Flintlock exercise scenario. A fellow soldier was wounded during a ground movement and now they needed to spring into action to save her life.

A rush of French words fills the air as commands are given and one medic scrambles to the aid of his fallen friend. Seeing a gushing bullet wound, he applies a tourniquet to her leg, stopping the flow of blood. Air in the chest cavity complicates the treatment but inserting a catheter needle helps relieve the pressure. Once stabilized, several other soldiers strap the wounded soldier on a stretcher and evacuate her to the nearest hospital. Lucky for the female Burkinabe soldier, a Role 1 aid station was a mere 100 feet away, manned by two Army National Guard doctors and a medic from Michigan.

These Burkinabe medics are at the early stages of becoming the next-generation of African military medical trainers for Tactical Combat Casualty Care, known as ‘T triple C’ in military jargon, or TCCC.

TCCC is the U.S. Department of Defense’s standard of care in pre-hospital combat zone medicine and injury management. It’s data-driven, evidence-based, life-saving techniques and strategies for providing the best trauma care to soldiers on the battlefield.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Matthew McKinsey, a reservist from Pennsylvania, who normally works as a civilian physician assistant, has been instructing TCCC around the world for the past several years as part of the DoD’s Global Health Engagement1 program.

“We’ve taken the data the DoD collected over years of war and found out what injuries are most likely to kill people…and of those injuries what are the ones we can actually treat on the battlefield,” he said.

“That’s where we try to focus our effort, that’s where we hone in. Injuries like massive bleeding, damaged or obstructed airways, and management of chest wounds. Treating and stabilizing those injuries are all things that everyone from a physician to a medic to an infantryman can master with training.”

Once the patient at Camp Zagre was turned over to the Role 1 medical facility, U.S. Air Force TCCC mission commander, Capt. Alexander Adeleye, and his USAF team gathered the trainees for a critical after-action review, photos and presentation of certificates of achievement.

“Our goal is to train the partner nation on a medical capability that they can self-sustain, and then when we take it a step further, the ultimate goal would be for that partner nation to be seen as a regional leader where they can train partner nations in that region,” Adeleye said.
For Adeleye, coming back to Africa to lead this team was rewarding but also humbling.

“I am originally from Nigeria, so I immigrated to the United States about 17 years ago. I joined the Air Force a little less than 15 years ago. The opportunities presented to me have been endless. Coming back and being a part of a program like this (TCCC) is extremely humbling and I am happy to be a part of something bigger than myself.”

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1) DoD's Global Health Engagement activities advance operational readiness and protect our troops, build interoperability so we can work more effectively with the armed forces of our partner nations, and enhance security cooperation so DoD can establish and maintain strong relationships around the world.

• Date Taken: 02.27.2019
• Date Posted: 03.01.2019 06:51
• Story ID: 312331
• Location: OUAGADOUGOU, BF