Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Aird | Pfc. Joe Kaiser, a medic from Headquarters and Headquarters Company (Hellraiser), 2nd...... read more read more
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SOUTH KOREA - The first thing you noticed in the rooms, if you could see through the gray, smoky air, was the blood. The minute you stepped in the room you were standing in it. You could feel it, see it, smell it, and the dark, red pool left a feeling in the pit of your stomach that you couldn’t shake.
There was blood on the floors, bloody handprints on walls, blood on the guns, and blood on the bodies. There was someone screaming for help. The sound of explosions and flying bullets made it hard to hear anything or anyone else.
Bodies drained like broken dykes, forming a river across the floor. Some were missing legs, others were missing arms. They were wearing camouflage Army fatigues, and if they were still squirting, they were still alive.
The rooms could have been in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other country involved in a conflict in recent years. The rooms described above were real, but the bodies were not. The bodies were computerized mannequins that bleed and breathe by remote control. The sound of loud explosions and firing bullets were being played from loud speakers hidden in rocks. The room, the dark red blood, the guns, and the bodies were all part of an exercise at the Medical Simulation Training Center near Rodriguez Live Fire Complex.
“Hellraiser” medics from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, partnered with Republic of Korea army Special Forces Warfare Command last month to train on their yearly required medical training at the MSTC. The trauma rooms create a realistic medical situation to train, teach and evaluate the medics.
“We train the medics all week in the classroom,” said Eric Ironsmith, a technical instructor at the MSTC. “The soldiers experience the trauma rooms where they must endure loud noises and fake blood to evaluate and treat the moving robotic bleeding-breathing mannequins.”
The soldiers, wearing full combat load and carrying medical gear, must secure the room, prioritize the simulated injured personnel, and then apply medical aid.
The MSTCs are designed to train medical and non-medical personnel. The MSTC’s goal is to improve medical knowledge and skills that can later be used under combat conditions.
“The rooms are pretty intense,” said Sgt. Christopher Green, a 22-year-old medic from Millington, Mich. “The trauma rooms give the chaos that goes down in battle. My adrenaline was definitely pumping.”
The MSTCs provide classroom and hands-on instruction using multiple, advanced training systems and simulations.
“We don’t have these kinds of facilities available to us,” said 1st Sgt. Sung Kyun Lee, senior enlisted medic for the ROK army unit. “This place makes for a very realistic situation.”
Hellraiser and South Korean special forces medics worked side-by-side for the duration of the training.
“It is critical for our units to train with our ROK counterparts as we prepare to ‘Fight Tonight,’” said Capt. Michael B. Kim, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment. “This was a great training event with the ROK special forces and we look forward to building upon this relationship.”
At the end of the week, both groups qualified on their medical tasks.
“It was a great opportunity, and we look forward to training with them again,” said Lee.
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2012 22:30 |
| Story ID: | 86255 |
| Location: | BUSAN GWANG'YEOGSI [PUSAN-KWANGYOKSHI], KR |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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