(ROSE BARRACKS, Germany) - Soldiers from 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division finished a week-long combat lifesaver course at Rose Barracks, Germany's Medical Simulation Training Center July 15.
Timothy Matthews, one of the instructors, said the course teaches Soldiers how to act as a first responder and treat a casualty at the point of injury.
"The intent for this class is to take somebody who is completely non-medical and take them from the ability to shoot a weapon, or whatever their MOS is, and then to add the skills necessary if someone falls next to them to save their life," said Matthews.
Over the last week, Soldiers learned through hands-on training how to evaluate a casualty, apply a tourniquet, secure an airway using a nasopharyngeal tube, and treat a tension pneumothorax with a needle decompression.
On Friday, all of their training was put to the test during a combat medical lane, where the stress-level was increased to force the Soldiers to treat casualties in a simulated combat environment.
"The intent of the lanes is to step out of the teaching role and let them do everything we've taught over the last four days," said Matthews. "Let their brains and their hands come together on something that's oozing a little bit of fake blood, with some stress and some smoke and some noise, trying to get them smoked up and just give them that impression of a combat treatment scenario."
Pvt. Kiee Harvey, a supply specialist from Alexandria, Virginia with the 1st Brigade's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, led her squad through the lane as the team leader.
"It was my job to guide everyone and give everyone orders on what they needed to do," said Harvey. "I was nervous at first, but then when I got into it, you know, you just physically do what you were taught."
SPC Steven Fang, a cable systems installer and maintainer with the brigade's HHC, said despite the stress and distractions, his training kicked in when it came time to treat the casualties.
"I honestly thought I wasn't going to know what I was doing," said Fang, a native of El Paso, Texas. "But as soon as it happened, I guess because of the repetition all week, when I saw [the casualty], I just did it. I was calm and did everything I had to do and what I remembered."
Fang and Harvey both said the hands-on practical exercises throughout the course not only made it fun, but also made it easier to remember the procedures.
Though neither of them are in a medical or combat arms military occupational specialty, they both feel comfortable in their abilities to take care of their fellow Soldiers and get them to a higher level of care if needed.
"Whenever we go anywhere and one of my battle buddies goes down, or even if we are just training and something happens and a medic is not around, I can at least perform first aid until the medic comes and takes over from there," stated Fang.
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