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CAMP GONSALVES, Japan - Corpsmen and airmen traversed
through jungle environment during the Jungle Medicine Combat
Course July 10-20, 2014 at the Jungle Warfare Training Center on
Camp Gonsalves.
The course instructors taught the
service members jungle medicine, combat trauma, patient
assessment and preventive medicine while challenging their
small unit leadership abilities.
Seaman
Courtney M. Perdue, left, maneuvers, Seaman Aidan Rispens up a cliff
as part of a practical application exercise during the Jungle
Medicine Combat Course at the Jungle Warfare Training Center on Camp Gonsalves. During the exercise, the corpsmen maneuvered a sked
stretcher up the cliff using the hasty technique that was taught
during the course. Perdue is a Columbus, Ohio, native and Rispens is
a Puyallup, Wash., native. Both are corpsmen with 1st Battalion, 8th
Marine Regiment, currently assigned to 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd
Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, under the unit
deployment program. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Brittany
A. James) |
The corpsmen are with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment,
and 1st Bn., 8th Marine Regiment, currently assigned to 4th
Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine
Expeditionary Force, as part of the unit deployment program;
as well as 3rd Medical Bn. and 3rd Dental Bn., 3rd Marine
Logistics Group, III MEF; 7th Communications Bn., III Marine
Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, III MEF; and the
U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa.
The airmen are with 18th
Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, 18th Operations Group, 18th
Wing.
The service members inhabited the jungle for 10 days to
learn tactics and medical treatments for survival in such
environments.
“We're in such a unique environment in
Okinawa,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class David B. Wright, a
corpsman with 3rd Med. Bn. “This is one of the few places
left in the military that we can train in jungle warfare and
medicine.”
Military medical providers will not always
have the luxury of working in a clean and sterile
environment with all the supplies readily available,
according to Wright, an Orlando, Florida, native. It is
important to know how to perform proper medical treatment in
more difficult settings and improvise when supplies are
scarce.
The training kicked off with a class on the
basics of jungle survival, such as identifying dangerous
species of animals and plants native to the jungle climate,
improvised splinting and stretcher constructing, and
treating hypothermia and heat cases.
“We have to be
aware in this type of environment (because of) the risks it
poses to us during the training,” said Cmdr. Chris Alfonzo,
the Division Surgeon for 3rd Marine Division, III MEF.
“They're gaining skills that will be practical here and in
combat theaters as well.”
This is the second time the
Jungle Medicine Combat Course has been conducted at JWTC,
according to Alfonzo. It is open for units to send
volunteers to participate.
“This is an opportunity to
bring any medical provider from any branch together to
experience the training,” said Petty Officer 1st Class James
P. McHale, an independent duty corpsman with JWTC. “It's
important to have better knowledge of how to stabilize
patients in different environments, under different
circumstances.”
The training gives the basics on
jungle survival, but it is more focused on medicine than
warfighting, according to McHale, a Fort Walton Beach,
Florida, native. This training brought medical providers
from different branches together to learn the same universal
tactics for jungle survival.
Sailors and airmen
practiced proper rope tying techniques for rappelling and
sked stretchers to better familiarize them with hasty
movements in rough terrain and quick patient evacuations.
“We're going to be using these techniques for (search
and rescue) missions, especially when a spine board is not
needed,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Fischer, an
Edmond, Oklahoma, native, instructor at JWTC and corpsman
with Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III MEF.
“As corpsmen, we are responsible for retrieving casualties,
and it is important to know how to operate that equipment to
remove them safely.”
All of the service members'
training was put to the test during the Combat Endurance
Course. The course posed an assortment of obstacles that
challenged them to use the tactics and skills learned to
complete their mission.
“The endurance course is a
3.8 mile course with roughly 33 obstacles,” said McHale. “At
the end of it, there is a mile-long stretcher carry. It is
intended to build teamwork and endurance while maneuvering
the patient through the rough terrain of the jungle.”
The corpsmen and airmen must get through combat before
they are able to provide care to the service members in
need, according to McHale. Training in a jungle environment
will provide the knowledge that can later be passed down to
other medical providers.
“It's academic development
and expanding medical skills outside of a traditional
setting for (the service members),” said Alfonzo, a
Pensacola, Florida, native. “It is a personal and
psychological buildup dealing with the stressors out here.
It helps them build resiliency that will help them in the
field environment when they are encountering actual
casualties.”
More photos available below
By U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Brittany A. James
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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