FORT MCCOY, Wis. -- Before the medical training exercise can begin, the wounds are to be made, the mock patients must be trained, the ambulance drivers trained and the blood sorted, bagged and stacked. These are just a few of the many tasks that go on behind the scenes in preparation for Global Medic Combat Support Training Exercise (CSTX) 86-18-02, held at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, Aug. 4-24, 2018.
“It’s one thing to splash some fake blood on a mannequin . . . it is another to create realistic looking wounds. It brings more realism to the training, creating better training,” said U.S. Naval Reserve Sailor, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Patrick Craft, assigned to the Expeditionary Medical Facility Great Lakes One, from Great Lakes, Illinois.
Craft-working with the Medical Readiness Training Command’s 7304th Medical Training Support Battalion, prepares the simulated patients that will be injected into training scenarios to test and train the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and coalition partners participating in the exercise. The simulated patients for these exercises are both mannequins and live role players to ensure a realistic experience for the training audience.
MRTC delivers relevant and realistic collective training for Joint, Multi-National, and Reserve Component Forces through the Army Reserve’s Combat Support Training Program (CSTP).
Bringing more realism to the training, 1st Lt. Terra Furney and Staff Sgt. Alen Essenberg with 7304th MTS BN, based in San Antonio, Texas, prepare simulated blood to be used throughout the exercise.
“After a request comes through the Combat Support Hospital or the Forward Surgical Team or whoever needs blood, the Blood Support Detachment will then send it out in special boxes called ‘Collins’ boxes. Part of what a lab has to do in theater is receive units of blood. They will then have to check temperatures, do inventory and place them in their supply rotation as necessary. When the training units have a tangible product, you can do that instead of using a notional blood supply on paper,” explained Furney.
“If a generator goes down, affecting the refrigerators, you can have that as part of an exercise - taking the product and properly storing it in the Collins boxes. Then you check that they do everything they need to do following their standard operating procedures to make sure the blood products stay viable,” Furney said.
Essenberg further explained the value for Observer Coach Trainers, “Having a blood supply gives OC/T’s a chance to actually see the process the unit is going through. When the patient ends up in the [Emergency Room] one of the things the OC/T needs to evaluate is the use of the blood products. It is easier for them to see that the training audience is doing it instead of someone hanging a piece of paper that simulates the action saying ‘O positive’ on it.”
More than 225 personnel assigned to support MRTC are serving as Observer Coach / Trainers (OC/Ts) and support staff to run Global Medic Fort McCoy for a Joint, Multi-Component training audience of nearly 1,500 personnel inclusive of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 807th and 3rd Medical Command (Deployment Support) as well as Army National Guard, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine and Coalition personnel with Canadian and British Armed Forces.
Through the Army Reserve Medical Command’s Medical Readiness and Training Command the medical professionals serving in the U.S. Armed Forces are given the opportunities and tools to deliver relevant and realistic collective medical training which increases future battlefield readiness, effectiveness, and lethality.