TARIN KOT, Afghanistan – Members of the Afghan National Army’s 4th Kandak, 205th Corp Medical Company, gathered at Multi-National Base Tarin Kot this week, to learn how to train their own in medical evacuation.
Referred to as train-the-trainer, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade crew members, along with Slovak, Australian and U.S. Army mentors, guided ANA soldiers through a three-day course allowing them to travel to forward operating bases and train Afghan medics on medical evacuation procedures in the future.
“The students are already trained in first-aid and medical care, but most of the soldier’s have not gone through any medevac procedures,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Gary Ralstin, medical mentor for the Operational Mentor and Liaison Team- 2.
During the course, students went through classroom and practical-exercises of step-by-step procedures in communications, patient treatment and packaging, and ground-air evacuation, culminating in hands-on patient preparation and aircraft loading on a UH-60 Black Hawk.
Capt. Toor Kahn, company commander of the medical unit, said that the training, being a first for them, is beneficial to the 205th and will enable them to send personnel forward to train and certify other Afghan medics at forward bases.
“This was a first in training soldiers to train others and many of these soldiers are already using their medical skills in the field,” said Kahn.
Company leaders sent their best soldiers to this training to build even greater capabilities for future successes in the Uruzgan province.
The Uruzgan province has seen many firsts in training and is in the process of transitioning all operations over to the Afghan government, much like neighboring Daykundi province’s transition, occurring in December.
“We are very thankful to ISAF for all they have done,” said 1st Lt. Allisha Allishazada, 205th Corps communications officer for the training. “This means so much to the Afghan National Army and the people of Afghanistan.”
Mentors are hopeful that beyond training their own, the Afghan medics will be able to use the information learned as a base-line to create their own operating procedures based on their unit’s strategic medical needs.