Even the medics need to fight in a counterinsurgency. From Army Medics Receive Intense Training:
As the insurgents in Iraq step up their attacks, the Army has increased the intensity of its training of battlefield medics. That has meant moving the training from classrooms to more realistic settings and teaching medics to keep fighting the enemy — even if it means sometimes delaying treatment of the wounded.“One medic on his weapon returning fire can make the difference between the enemy staying and continuing to fire on us, or saying `Whoa, I got to go,’” said Capt. Brad Tibbetts, the officer in charge of the Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell. “That’s one thing we teach them — when to delay and when you can’t.”
This sure beats that “Annie” mannequin from CPR class:
Much of the training at the Fort Campbell school is conducted using strikingly lifelike dummies controlled by computers. The dummies “bleed,” breathe, blink and have a pulse.
This final exam sounds like it came out of an action story:
Fort Campbell started holding the final test for the class in a dark room after 101st Airborne Division medics returning from Afghanistan said they were not prepared to treat the wounded without light.In a recent test, an out-of-breath Pfc. Merinda Karn rushed to the scene with aid bag in hand for a test of her medic skills.
The 20-year-old Karn, who weighs about 140 pounds, was out of breath when she ran in to take the test because she had run six miles that morning and then dragged a 185-pound soldier about 200 yards before dashing into the room.
She flunked the test because in the dark she failed to feel an exit wound in the back of her “casualty,” and it “died.”
Afterward, the lights came on in the room and taps played. An instructor discussed what she did wrong.
“I just wasn’t as thorough as I should’ve been,” Karn said, before leaving the room to write a letter to the “casualty’s” parents, also part of the medic training.