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LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, Germany — Airmen from the 157th Medical Group completed combat casualty care training at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, June 20-24, 2025.
The combat lifesaver course enhances the skills of personnel in supporting medical roles, such as medical administrators, biomedical equipment technicians and public health specialists. The goal is to enable these Airmen to stabilize casualties and function more effectively within their units in operational settings.
During the five-day combat lifesaver course, medics, physician assistants, and doctors from the wing leveraged the European Medical Simulation Center (EMSC) at Landstuhl, Germany, to train their administrative counterparts. They learned how to recognize, prevent, and communicate combat injuries alongside trained medical responders.
The 157th Medical Group leveraged the EMSC to provide the best environment to train for casualty care under stress. Certified personnel from the unit facilitated the entire Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) Combat Lifesaver course, combining standardized curriculum with peer-to-peer mentorship from experienced medical doctors and assistants in both civilian and military medicine.
According to Col. James Brown, commander of the 157th Medical Group, the simulator at Landstuhl is one of the best available for TCCC. The simulator allows the participants to train safely in a simulated combat environment, with simulated explosions, smoke, and gunfire sounds.
“Training at this location provides one of the best experiences for our medics to give medical care under highly stressed conditions,” he said. A core component of the TCCC framework is the MARCH algorithm—Massive hemorrhage, Airway, Respiration, Circulation, and Head injury or Hypothermia—which guides service members through a structured approach to casualty assessment. This systematic process ensures life-threatening conditions are addressed in priority, to improve survival chances of the casualty in high-stress environments.
According to Master Sgt. Liza Roy, tactical combat casualty care program coordinator for the 157th Medical Group. Roy said the idea of the combat lifesaver tier is for medical administration staff to be more familiar with how the medical unit operates. The DOD wants to be able to use them in helping triage, transport, understand the expectations of trauma trained personnel, and overall speak the language.
The course included 40 hours of classroom instruction and hands-on training. Students began with TCCC developed lectures, followed by practical exercises to reinforce key concepts. The training was led by 157th Medical Group Airmen certified in both TCCC and the Train-the-Trainer program.
“What is great about doing the training as a unit is we have doctors, physician assistants, and nurses who can provide additional information on the spot,” said Brown. The TCCC program standardizes casualty care across the armed forces and prepares all service members—whether or not they have a medical role—to help reduce preventable deaths on the battlefield.
TCCC defines three phases of care—care under fire, tactical field care, and tactical evacuation care—recognizing that battlefield conditions demand approaches that differ from civilian medical practices. Even highly skilled civilian providers must adjust their methods in operational environments where resources may be limited and threats ongoing. “While the 157th Air Refueling Wing’s main mission is air refueling, our medics can deploy to a variety of environments,” said Brown. “The TCCC program ensures that if our medics are deployed with security forces or to other contested environments, they will be trained to provide care under fire.”
Whether applying a tourniquet or managing complex trauma, TCCC training ensures all service members are prepared to respond when lives are at stake.
“This situation is meant to replicate a war setting,” said Airman Drew Haley, an aerospace medical technician with the 157th Medical Group. “When we are in the building, you have the adrenaline going, gunfire, smoke, and you just have to go with what you’ve learned. I felt comfortable, my team felt comfortable. We did what we needed to do.”
| Date Taken: | 06.25.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2025 13:33 |
| Story ID: | 503583 |
| Location: | LANDSTUHL, DE |
| Web Views: | 1 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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