Photo By Capt. Jonathan Ashbaugh | Salvadoran soldiers from the 5th Infantry Brigade use the two-man carry to pick up...... read more read more
SAN VICENTE, El Salvador – Sgt. 1st Class Robert Barnes pans across the tent, looking each of the 10 Salvadoran army soldiers in the eye and states, “If you can’t do these five things, your buddy dies before he even sees the doctor.”
Barnes, a medic with the 996th Area Support Medical Company from the Arizona Army National Guard, has just finished explaining the basics of combat medicine to these young Salvadorans. The “five things” that Barnes covered were how to control bleeding, open an airway, keep a victim breathing, splint an arm or leg and combat carries.
The 996th ASMC is in El Salvador to provide medical support to U.S. military forces participating in Beyond the Horizon 2011, a 4-month-long inter-service humanitarian aid and training exercise.
Beyond the Horizon’s humanitarian efforts are focused in the area around San Vicente, El Salvador, one of the hardest-hit regions by Hurricane Ida in 2009. The ensuing landslides devastated San Vicente. The U.S. military’s engineer units here are helping to repair and upgrade four schools in that area.
But for Barnes, his focus is on teaching soldiers of El Salvador’s 5th Brigade how to save their comrades.
“These are the same things we are teaching our soldiers back home,” Barnes said. “This will allow them to go from the battlefield back to a doctor and have a higher chance of making it home alive to their families.”
While U.S. soldiers are required to refresh on this training every year as part of their Army Warrior Tasks, this subject is new for most of the Salvadoran soldiers.
Dr. Fernando Alfaro, a military physician with the Salvadoran Army, supports this training for the soldiers of the 5th Brigade and would have every Salvadoran soldier learn it, if possible.
“The majority of the people who take (this type of) training are our medics, not the individual soldier,” he says. “You never know when you have to go to war, of if you have to save a life in the city, this kind of training is going to help these soldiers save a life.”
Alfaro estimates that it could take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for a soldier in a training environment to be evacuated to a hospital, and that the training learned here increases the chance of survival, should the unexpected occur.
“A lot can happen in those 15 to 30 minutes,” reminds Alfaro.
Outside the tent, the Salvadorans start learning how to carry and drag one another, techniques that can be useful whether under fire in combat or simply walking through the jungle.
Outside the tent, the Salvadorans compete with each other, fireman-carrying the bigger Americans and racing on all four hands and feet while dragging a buddy, a technique called the bear drag. But behind every smile, you can see that this training is very real for these young men.
The 996th ASMC will continue teaching this class every week for a new group of 5th Brigade soldiers for the duration of Beyond the Horizon 2011. They are hoping to be able to leave behind bandages, tourniquets and other medical supplies, as well as their knowledge.
| Date Taken: | 03.30.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2011 11:42 |
| Story ID: | 68407 |
| Location: | SAN VICENTE, SV |
| Web Views: | 254 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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