FORT STEWART, Ga. - Two Soldiers rushed to cover from 'enemy gunfire' as a firefight broke out.
Moving behind an ancient piece of machinery they called out to where a Soldier lay on the ground, covered in 'blood'. Receiving nothing but groans of pain, the two Soldiers laid down suppressive fire as they moved up, checking the surroundings for any sign of threat as one kneeled to check the mock casualty's vitals. Within moments of the two medics determined the problem and after administering initial first aid, dragged the Soldier carefully to a safe location to be evacuated.
Although it's not a skill anyone wants to use, the medics of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team know they need to be trained and prepared for anything.
"Today we're doing our skill validations for training," said Sgt. 1st Class Maggie Tucker, HHC, 1/3 BSTB. "We've already performed Tables 1-7 and this is Table 8. This validation tests them on treating a casualty in a hostile environment. They will treat casualties 'under fire', return fire as needed then move the casualty out of that environment to be packaged for evacuation. We have to maintain this skill in order to save Soldiers in combat and our medics are excelling at all of the tasks they have been evaluated on."
The training had multiple scenarios, forcing the medics to treat different types of casualties while under fire.
"We have different scenarios with different types of patients that they could come across in real life," said Sgt. Kate "Wombat" Lyker, HHC, 1/3 BSTB, "They are going to be running through each portion of it: from care under fire to working on the casualty in the aid station so they are not focused on just one part of the training."
For the Soldiers, it was a good refresher on the skills they were taught and tested on in Advanced Individual Training. However, as war constantly evolves, so do the techniques required for medics to do their best.
"It's good training," said Pfc. Kemar Pryce, HHC, 1/3 BSTB, "I've been out of AIT for a while, so it helps us remember what were taught and bring us up to date on new Army standards of patient care and treatment. Nothing can compare to the real thing, but this is as close as it gets to the real thing."
The medics litter-carried their mock-casualties, simulating a helicopter evacuation then placed them on a field stand, but their work was far from done. Now in a safe environment, they had to finish the job they started and treat their patient to the best of their abilities. Their language is a mixture of military color and medical jargon as they evaluated at a speed that seemed almost unnatural.
"The Soldiers are doing fantastic," Sgt. Lyker said, "A lot of this stuff becomes instinct. They are all new Soldiers and are highly trained, even though none have been in a combat environment. This training is the closest you can get without having real injuries."
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