FORT CARSON, Co. – The 1077th Medical Company – Ground Ambulance, Kansas Army National Guard, made the most of annual training 2021 at the Medical Simulation Training Center at Fort Carson, Colorado. Soldiers participated in Medic Sustainment 24-Hour training, an advanced course testing them on a wide variety of skills.
Second Lt. Karisa Weaver, 1077th executive officer, explained that some of the skills the unit was looking to train on included in-route casualty care, medication administration, transporting casualties from casualty collection points, and treating patients while in ambulances.
“Here we have the opportunity to practice more realistic training,” Weaver said. “It’s a great opportunity to build teamwork and cohesion. A lot of times at home station we focus on individual skills, but here at the MSTC, Soldiers really have to learn to work together and communicate.”
Weaver said the MSTC offers additional training value in that it simulates a high-stress environment, which mimics what Soldiers would likely encounter in combat situations. The sophisticated mannequin “casualties” of the MSTC - which blink, breathe, have pulses, and bleed - also help the training feel more realistic.
Sgt. Dalton Howell, Active Duty 68W medic and primary instructor with the Fort Carson MSTC, explained that 68Ws are required to know a wide variety of skills because they could serve anywhere from maternity wards to emergency rooms to battlefields. He and his team teach the medic 24-hour course to extend Soldiers’ training to include more advanced skills not covered in basic 68W courses.
“As medics, we are starting to move toward prolonged field care,” Howell said. “If our air evacuation is not in a timely fashion, we could be sitting on patients for upwards of 72 hours. This class trains medics on how to take care of a casualty for that long and offers them the skills necessary to monitor the casualty much better.”
Some of the advanced course material included skills like chest tubes, urinary catheterization, oral tracheal intubation, and even how to treat military working dogs.
“We want medics to be well-rounded,” Howell said. “This training shows them things can be intense. The scenario can always change, the patient's condition can always change.”
The practical exercise concluding the course evaluated small teams on their ability to assess and treat a severely wounded casualty under stressful conditions. Howell said he hopes the Soldiers leave the course feeling more confident in themselves, which he believes is critical for success in the profession.
“This was a big eye opener for us,” said Pfc. Chase Mignot, a medic with the 1077th. “We’re going to have a lot of things to work on. But it was a fun and engaging way to train and help us get on that road to making ourselves better medics.”
“Coming into this field, you have to be driven,” Howell said. “You have to be motivated and you have to be able to take initiative and responsibility. It’s a job where someone’s life is potentially in your hands.”
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