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CAMP CASEY, South Korea - The Army healthcare specialist has
another name by which it is recognized by the general public. The
combat medic.
These Soldiers are trained to perform all the
tasks of an emergency medical technician and more, all while under
enemy fire. The job is intense, and their training must reflect that
intensity.
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The medics of the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, respond to a casualty evacuation request during a training exercise at Rodriguez Range, South Korea, July 27, 2015. During the exercise, injured Soldiers receive care in order to stabilize their condition long enough to transport them to the unit's combined troop aid station. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. John Healy, 2ABCT PAO, 1st Cav. Div.)
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First Sgt. Henry Pantoja of Charlie Company, 1st
Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat
Team, 1st Cavalry Division, calls in the nine line medevac
request from the radio in his Highly Mobile Multi Wheeled
Vehicle. A tank round has exploded near an M113 Armored
Personnel Carrier, injuring four Soldiers. This is the
signal to begin the exercise.
Within two minutes, a
second HMMWV outfitted as a field-loaded ambulance tears up
the road towards the injured Soldiers scattered around their
damaged M113. The red cross on a white field painted on each
side are unmistakable. The medics are on the scene.
“Our job is to be a swiss army knife,” said Spc. Leon Jonas,
a 24 year old combat medic from Hanover, Maryland, who works
at the Combined Troop Aid Station for 1-9 Cav. “We see
simple things to very extreme things.”
This type of
exercise is what he calls a “trial by fire.” Jonas runs for
the nearest casualty.
The injured Soldier, who had
been relaxing moments before, laughing while smearing fake
blood over her ACU's, clutches at Jonas' uniform and starts
screaming. Jonas speaks to the Soldier, telling her that
she's going to be ok and that they're going to take care of
her. His eyes are on the combat application tourniquet that
he's fastening just above the end of her severed leg. Her
lower leg and foot lie a few feet away.
Jonas calls
for his counterpart, Spc. Wesley Gibens, another combat
medic, to help lift her onto the litter he's prepared. They
secure the Soldier in place using ratchet straps to prevent
her from falling and injuring herself further. Before they
move her over to the ambulance, Jonas picks up all of her
personal belongings and tucks them under the ratchet straps
beside her. A helmet, a pair of glasses, and her severed
leg.
“If you don't see training as being realistic,
then its not training,” said Jonas. “It helps me definitely
to know where my weaknesses are, and where I need to improve
as a health care specialist or as a combat medic and as an
evacuation team chief. It makes me a better leader.”
With the ambulance loaded, it's time to head back to the aid
station. The casualties are unloaded and carried into the
makeshift triage center to either be treated or air lifted
to a better equipped hospital if necessary. Under the
guidance of the clinic's designated physician assistant, the
medics explode into action.
Pfc. Christina Suarez, a
medic from San Antonio, Texas, begins evaluating patients as
they arrive. With each patient her hand become more and more
bloody. A small pool starts to form beneath the gurney at
her station.
“It's fake,” said Suarez. “It's more
just to get us in the mindset that ‘this is happening.' It
makes it more realistic.”
Working alongside her is
Pfc. Zachary Iser from Lofton, South Carolina. Iser used to
be a firefighter. He joined the Army as a combat medic to
make his resume as a professional firefighter more
competitive.
Iser's patient is having trouble
breathing. Inserting an artificial airway through the nose
doesn't help, so the PA instructs Iser to begin a
cricothyrotomy, creating an airway by performing emergency
surgery on the patient's throat. Once the patient is
breathing on their own, he begins preparing them for
helicopter transport to the nearest hospital.
“Anything under the sun that the PA would allow us to do, we
can do,” said Iser. “We're pretty much paramedics.”
The last of the injured Soldiers are carried to the medevac
helicopter and secured for transport. Even though there are
no more patients to care for, tension is still high as the
last of the adrenaline fades.
“Today was our mass
casualty training,” said Iser. “They pretty much went
through and tried to overload our systems with what they
thought would be too many patients or too much severity of
the injuries.”
“There are a couple things that we can
definitely improve on,” said Iser. “Nobody's perfect but you
strive to be as perfect as you can for every patient.”
“You give the same treatment that you would want to get
if you were in the same situation,” said Iser.
By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. John Healy
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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