CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq — Six members of the Iraqi air force received first aid training from medics with the 224th Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), from Long Beach, Calif., at the IAF-run Ali Base Clinic Feb. 23 at Contingency Operating Base Adder.
Four fixed-wing warrant officers, one private, and the clinics director received the training from 1st Lt. Vijay Soprey, a physician’s assistant with the 224th Sustainment Brigade, and a Baltimore native. The training provided the technicians an introduction to first aid skills needed to assist the clinic’s small, two-person staff.
“This training benefited the Iraqi forces because they were non-medical personnel,” said Soprey. “We gave them a basic overview of what to expect, how to manage [patients] and take care of them in the best manner to avoid complications, further injury or death.”
Soprey was assisted by Spc. Nomar Alvarez, a medic with 224th Sustainment Brigade, and a Los Angeles native, and together they provided translated slides with medical information and pictures to the Iraqi airmen.
“The primary topic was acute wound management with a focus on lacerations, abrasions, and puncture wounds,” said Soprey. “We started out [teaching] basic lacerations, how to identify them, what needs to be transferred out, what needs to be moved to a higher level of care, and examples of things that affect the airway, breathing, and circulation. We discussed how to identify these.”
Later, Soprey and Alvarez went through hands-on examples of their topics including how to treat and stop bleeding, puncture wounds, gun-shot wounds, blisters, and how to clean a wound.
“Based on the slides we provided, we made models to associate with the injuries that were taught,” said Alvarez, who gave examples. “I thought they would help given the language difference. It went well. [First] Lt. Soprey has lots of medical knowledge. Their facial expressions really showed they enjoyed the training.”
The Ali Base Clinic Director, 1st Lt. Muhammad Ali, a Nasiriyah, Iraq, native, said the training will really benefit him and the clinic.
“Today was very useful,” he said. “There was an awesome instructor that presented the material. He had the knowledge of what he was teaching. This is really important for our future operations and for the technicians [IAF warrant officers]; they now know what to do in the future if those kinds of wounds happen. I think the [technicians] will support the [medical staff] when we have an exercise or missions. Some days we have up to 10 patients and it’s just me and Ali [IAF private who participated] working in the clinic. Now we will have some assistance with patients.”
Muhammad said he appreciates the support he has received so far from U.S. forces and welcomes future training.
“We look forward to any upcoming training that could benefit us as far as dealing with burn victims, head injuries, and fractures; we need more knowledge,” said Muhammad. “We are at the beginning of our operations; we have started from zero, and we are looking to the future for more medical personnel, more equipment and more space.”