Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Brent Powell | Students in the Combat Lifesaver Course at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin,...... read more read more
By Sgt. Brent C. Powell
204th Public Affairs Detachment
FORT IRWIN, Calif., - Beads of sweat roll down the soldier's dust covered face. His muscles tense as his forefinger rests along the trigger housing of his fully loaded M4 assault rifle. He scans the road ahead through a dusty windshield, his eyes straining for any sign of enemy movement or improvised explosive devices that may lie before him just out of sight. Suddenly bullets ricochet off the hood of his Humvee and shatter the windshield.
A large explosion rocks the vehicle and he can hear someone screaming for help. His vehicle grinds to a halt and he sees a fellow soldier lying unconscious on the roadway a few feet away. Unhesitating he leaves the vehicle and runs to the aid of his fallen comrade. His training has prepared him for this scenario and his quick actions result in saving the fallen soldiers life.
More than 60 soldiers here faced scenarios such as this recently as they underwent four-days of medical training to prepare them to be combat lifesavers.
The soldiers, from various reserve combat engineer units from around the U.S. are here at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Santa Fe as part of Operation Sand Castle 2009. The two-week operation gives units the opportunity to sharpen their combat and engineering skills in a desert environment.
"This training is focused on giving the students all the essential assessment skills needed to treat a patient or casualty at the point of injury," said Capt. Macgregor Morgan, officer in charge of the Combat Lifesaver Course (CLS), from the 399th Combat Support Hospital from Devens, Mass. "It's similar to buddy aid. We give them some hands on skills so they are able to stop and control bleeding, initiate an IV (intravenous) infusion as needed and do a basic assessment of a patient to tell what treatment is needed."
The CLS course covers four days of material. The first day the students attend briefings and power point presentations of basic medical aid. They also receive training on CPR, tactical care of a casualty, scene safety and basic airway management.
The second day the students receive more classroom instruction, but also get some hands on training learning how to evacuate a casualty from vehicles, various techniques to carry a wounded soldier and how to quickly transport an injured soldier from the battlefield.
The third day the students learn how and when to administer an IV. They also undergo various combat scenarios and drills to put all of their knowledge and skills together.
The final day consists of written and practical exams. For those who successfully complete the training they will receive a combat lifesaver bag, consisting of various medical tools and items, and they will attend a short graduation ceremony.
"I want these soldiers to leave here with a good understanding that the skills they receive this week are actually going to save their buddies lives overseas," said Morgan. "They won't be expert medics, they won't be docs or nurses, but they will have the basic simple skills needed to stop and control bleeding and initiate IV fluids if needed."
The training the soldiers receive here will assist their unit medics who may become overwhelmed. "Army wide we are pushing the issue of first line responders to help out the medics," said Morgan. "There is usually not enough medics per unit that can treat everyone, so if every soldier has some basic medical skills the chances of saving lives is greater."
According to Morgan this class will be the first of three scheduled with the goal of training 180 soldiers in CLS. "If we could get every soldier trained that would be ideal," said Morgan. "But what we've asked for is a couple of soldiers from each unit so by the time this operation is over, every unit here will have at least one or two trained CLS qualified soldiers to assist medics in their duties."
One of the CLS students was PFC Monty R. Watkins, a combat engineer from the 806th Engineer Battalion from Conway, AR. "I love this course," said Watkins. "It's very interesting and I'm picking up a lot of knowledge I can use when I deploy or even here at home."
"Most of these soldiers are going to deploy and they understand and appreciate the real world experience we bring them," said Morgan. "They realize that this training is something that could help them save their buddy's life and they are excited about that."
| Date Taken: | 07.13.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 07.13.2009 23:20 |
| Story ID: | 36321 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 382 |
| Downloads: | 336 |
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