Marines with the Provost Marshal’s Office Special Reaction Team completed a rigorous Combat Life Saver Course Oct. 4 aboard Camp Foster.
The CLS course educates and trains Marines in basic casualty and combat care, preparing them to provide aide to injured service members in combat situations. Marines learn to provide similar life-sustainment care that a corpsman would administer until the causality can be treated by a medical professional.
“It is usually a three-day course,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric Adams, a CLS course instructor with 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force. “The first day is [lectures] and things of that nature. The second day, we focus on practical application. The third and final day, is for testing. So just going from what we do [during] care under fire to what we do under tactical evacuation. We practice chest seals, tourniquets and needle decompressions. The objective was to simulate a combat setting, do a full patient assessment and prepare our Marines to assist corpsmen in a combat setting.”
SRT is the Marine Corps’ version of a SWAT team, acting as the 911 force, first responders across Okinawa.
“The objective of this course was to have my men be able to do buddy aide because for our job we do a lot of high risk scenarios including building clearing, and hostage situations,” said Sgt. John Fruin, the SRT team leader with Marine Corps Installations Pacific-Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, Japan. “Once the Marines go through this they will have completed one of the most realistic trainings, that way when it comes to real life and saving people’s lives they are well equipped.”
The final test is a high intensity course that simulates the loud, hectic environment of a real life combat situation known as ‘kill house.’ Marines scramble to save their battle buddies, effectively treat wounds and report their position.
According to Fruin, the ‘kill house’ is so effective because it allows Marines to practice assessing and treating casualties in a high-stress environment. This helps them better prepare for real life scenarios.
Generally this test takes a full day, but SRT flew through it, graduating within a few hours.
“This will help the SRT Marines be even more confident,” said Fruin. “We do not need to wait for medical to come and help save the individual, we can do it ourselves, making us more efficient.”