This month consisted of Combat Life Saver Hands on Tasks and Tactical Casualty Care. Every team out in the field will have a Combat Life Saver who is responsible for administering emergency first aid to casualties, assist medics if available, and arrange of evacuation of the casualty if needed. We did not have the time to become completely CLS certified but we did get through some great stuff. According to the ppt we used as a visual which I was able to find on Google “If during the next war you could do only two things, 1) place a tourniquet and 2) treat a tension pneumothorax, then you can probably save between 70 and 90 percent of all the preventable deaths on the battlefield.” -COL Ron Bellamy
We learned how to do both of these things as well as other pressure dressings, pressure points, IVs, 9-line MEDEVACs, casualty evaluation, nasopharyngeal airways, etc. Due to the technical nature and extent of what we learned I will post the things we learned in a separate posting for those who want to read it and for my own benefit in rewriting what we learned. For those who are uninterested in the specifics however, I will make this posting simply the meat and potatoes of what happened at drill.
As before, I showed up on post at 0825 to get my Goretex and MRE (grilled chicken this time, my second favorite). Just before we started dividing into squads, PFC Gluch, Platoon 2s Platoon Guide, informed me that I would be squad leader for fourth squad, second platoon. During drill this is obviously a much easier job than it would be in a field environment and basically just consists of keeping accountability for those in your squad, leading your squad while marching, creating details when tasks need to be done and just helping out your troops when needed. I also had a patch for my right arm to denote that I was squad leader. My squad consisted of PVT Barta, PVT Bennet, PVT Knudsen, PVT Stock, PVT McKie, PVT Lee-Harkins, PVT Gable, PVT Ware (who was a huge help), myself and one other soldier who's name I'll remember eventually. I was also supposed to have PVT Clack but he was unable to be at drill.
At first I didn't know my squad's names at all but after checking all of them off on my sheet so many times I was eventually able to get their names down. Our first formation took a little long because of name recognition problems and such but starting next month we're changing the way we do our first formation and it will be much more efficient.
After our first formation we moved to our standard PT test. I've continued to improve in PT due to working out with Norah every day (except for sit-ups, I can't get those to go faster.). I'm now at 48 pushups/minute, 44 sit-ups/minute and a 6:14 mile. This month we ran on the track instead of our road course so we had to do 4 laps instead of just 1. Normally I hate track running because it's so repetitive and their doesn't seem to be an end in sight but it worked pretty well this time. It was nice being able to hear our times from SGT Seader and it was cool to be able to lap people as we ran. The track we ran is somewhat dynamic (not a lot but it's not just a pure oval and it was made vastly more interesting by the huge gap between the front and back of the pack. It was a good PT test overall and I'm glad to see that my running is helping since I really do not like running.
After PT we went back to the barracks and had chow, got our linens, and had our time to get cleaned up. Luckily I had Grilled Chicken for my lunch which is very good and I think there was a bag of m&ms if I remember right. I also got to freshen up on my hospital corners with SPC McKenna's help.
We then left the barracks and marched over to room 440 where we had our classroom instruction time on how to be a CLS (Combat Life Saver). I don't remember exactly how long we ended up being in there but it was a very long time. We were having some trouble with people starting to fall asleep and having to get up but I didn't think it was that bad. We had breaks to get up for a bit and had a short hands on section to break things up so it wasn't that difficult. I think the main thing that helped me though was the fact that I was taking notes. I have about 8 pages worth in a notepad that came in our Battlebooks. I think that made a big difference in keeping me awake. (Everything in bold is what we learned, if you don't care, just skip it and go to what we did.)
We started out learning how to clear airways and fix breathing problems then moved into different ways of controlling bleeding. We started with Emergency Trauma Dressings, moved into tourniquets (army has cool tourniquets btw) and learned the different ways to use them and other things to do with hemorrhaging extremities. We also went over a really cool new thing that the army just started using called Chitosan bandages which I had never heard of before. They're made for massive arterial bleeding and are made out of the chitin in shrimp shells (people with shrimp allergies are allergic to the shrimp proteins, chitin is hypoallergenic). None of our instructors had used one before since they're very new but it turns out a good family friend of ours had one used on an injury to his wrist once and it worked very well.
One of the coolest things we learned was how to treat collapsed lungs and tension pneumothoraxes caused by puncturing chest wounds. This section included diagnosing cyanosis (deoxygenated blood basically) and identifying sternum separation which causes what's called a "flail chest". We during these classes we also learned about the different recovery positions to put the casualties in after treating them. (Again, I'll go into what we learned in detail in the other posting.)
We then went into basic combat casualty care and our responsibilities as a CLS. One thing that was very highly stressed was the fact that, as much as it sucks, you don't fix your buddy until you have fire superiority and the fact that you're a soldier first and a CLS second. The three responsibilities we have are to 1. Save preventable deaths, 2. Prevent additional casualties and 3. Complete the mission and we have to remember that the care we can administer on a battlefield is going to be limited and that's just the nature of the beast. Our priorities when giving care are bleeding, then traumatic chest wounds, IV, splinting fractures to prep for EVAC, communicating status, starting a field medical card and transmitting a 9-line MEDEVAC request (last one isn't necessarily in that order). All of this is done after checking for ABC's (airway, breathing, circulation).
We then went through how to evaluate and classify a casualty while dealing with the complications of being on a battlefield.
Our final class for the day was the 9-line MEDEVAC request. The lines are 1. location, 2. radio frequency, call signal (basically how to get a hold of you while EVAC is en route), 3. # of casualties by precedence, 4. Special equipment required, 5. # of casualties by type, 6. Security level of pickup site, 7. Method of marking the pickup site, 8. Casualty nationality and status, 9. Nuclear, Biological, Chemical contamination (not really used).
During a break in our classroom time MSG Gordley called me out into another room and promoted me which was kinda cool. One of the nice things the National Guard does is massively incentivize recruiting (although that may change since we're doing so well) and we have a program called "Stripes for Buddies". I just had a friend join up and through this program I was able to get promoted. I am now a Private First Class (PFC) and will remain PFC until after Basic Training, unfortunately you can only go as high as PFC (which is an E-3) before going to BCT.
After our classroom time we went to the chow hall for a hot dinner which was very nice. The food is actually surprisingly good in the chow hall, it's kinda like going to scout camp. This was where we met the guy going for a fourth deployment that I mentioned in my other posting. I ate dinner with PVT Ware, PFC Gluch and PFC Markle; all of whom are great soldiers. PVT Ware was in my squad, PFC Gluch was my Patrol Guide, and PFC Markle is another one of the squad leaders. During dinner I found out tat PVT Ware's father is Command Sergeant Major of a Special Forces unit and she's one of 17 kids. That's a pretty intense story if you ask me.
After chow we went to another suicide prevention briefing that the army mandated everyone do. This one involved a video of a soldier who's life essentially just sucked (it was a fake story but a very plausible one). He made the mistake of getting engaged one month before deployment (it's amazing how many people do stuff like that and expect things to work out) and it went terribly for him. His fiancee got impregnated by his good friend from high school who then spent one of his paychecks and was driving his car and essentially took his spot in life while he was stuck 10,000 miles away. He of course became rather depressed and it affected his performance on the job. He was finally able to get things together a little by talking to his battle buddy but his battle buddy got shot and killed. When he finally started getting over that he got an email that his old fiancee had married the guy who impregnated her.
After watching the video we went through and watched it again and it was broken up and we put in choices on how the poor guy should react to each change in his situation. We guided him through the process of talking to his chaplain, then a guy on the Combat Stress Prevention Team, and eventually getting a grasp on his situation without endangering himself or anyone else. It was actually a very well-done briefing although by the end of it all of us wanted to see the fiancee get what was coming to her.
After the briefing we were able to go back to the barracks and retire for the night. This month I volunteered for the 0100-0200 fireguard shift with PVT Noteboom since for the last few months I've taken the first fireguard shift and it was time for me to take a bad one. After my shift we woke up PFC Barnett and PVT Hobbes and that was the end of my Saturday at drill. I'll post Sunday tomorrow, I don't think it will be as long.
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