RELEASE NUMBER: 140603-01
DATE POSTED: JUNE 3, 2014
112th Signal Battalion Soldiers take part in medical training
by Sgt. Daniel A. Carter
USASOC PAO NCO
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, June 3, 2014) -- Soldiers from the 112th Special Operations Signal Battalion, went through Tactical Combat Casualty Training at the Medical Simulation Training Center on Fort Bragg, May 27 - 30.
"The purpose of the training is to better equip Soldiers, in order for them to go into combat and have higher level of medical and tactical skills," said Staff Sgt. Jarred Cornish, a Special Operations combat medic with the 528th Special Operations Medical Detachment, and one of the instructors for the course.
From the first day of the course, soldiers learn about the different medical terminologies that they will find throughout their current, and future, medical training. With this in mind, the instructors impart upon them the basic knowledge needed in order to effectively communicate to a higher echelon of care in a combat zone.
"We came into this training mainly to get a refresher for CLS training, but it turned out that we went way more in depth and learned a lot more, that when we deploy to combat we can be a lot more confident and feel effective that we can take care of a casualty," said Spc. Cody Trahan, a nodal network systems operator.
Although, the instructors' main focus was to teach the soldiers a higher level of care than that of the Combat Life Savers course, Cornish said that they wanted to be able to give the soldiers more confidence, a better understanding of the human body, and medical knowledge.
"We want them to have more confidence, if not a lot more confidence, if or when they ever have the misfortune of coming across a casualty in combat and have to treat them," he explained. "Also, on top of that, a better knowledge of medicine in general as far as how the human body works. We get into anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, and give the Soldiers the knowledge of how stuff works."
Through the first two days of the course, the soldiers are given classroom lectures followed by hands-on training in the classroom. For the third and fourth days, the soldiers are given a classroom lecture in the morning, and then taken out to the woods in order to conduct more stressful training on the lanes.
"We use a crawl, walk, run type of progression during the lane training," said Cornish. "We start off with short distances with very minor injuries and over the progression of the two days, the lanes get more and more difficult, more stressful, with more complex obstacles that they have to make their way through."
At the end of the course, the culminating event is the final lane exercise. This lane exercise is the final test that the soldiers have to complete in order to pass the course and earn their certificate. Being the final test, this last exercise includes paintball guns and masks, IED simulators, and an extreme casualty situation.
"We give them paintball guns and a mission to an objective that takes them about a kilometer out into the lanes," Cornish said. "The goal of the training is to be able to keep adding stress to the scenarios while keeping the level of medicine very high."
With the knowledge gained throughout the course, the soldiers have the ability to go back to their units and be an effective member of a team in a combat situation, especially when there is a casualty involved.
"We all go through basic training and learn how to take care of a casualty, but it is kind of vague," said Trahan. "When we got here, we covered all of the basic things again, but now I feel way more comfortable and confident since we completed the training."