|
PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan –From time to time, everyone likes
to have a little help and the flight medics of Task Force Fighting
Eagles are getting just that.
Six soldiers from Charlie
Company, 15th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team
“Gamblers,” 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, volunteered for
training to become back wall medics to assist the flight medics
during air medical evacuation missions under TF Fighting Eagles.
For approximately two weeks, Soldiers will train alongside
flight medics to prepare them for real world scenarios so they can
proficiently perform duties treating our casualties.
|
Capt. Steve Scuba from Washington, the brigade nurse with
Charlie Company, 15th "Gamblers" Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd
Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas,
evaluates a simulated casualty for further injuries during "back
wall" medic training in Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan, Sept. 14,
2013. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Johnathan Hoover, 2nd BCT PAO,
1st Cav. Div.)
|
“Casualties that could be U.S., Coalition Forces and/or
Afghan National Army,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class James
Crawell, Headquarters Medical Platoon Sergeant, Charlie
Company, 2nd General Support Battalion, 1st Combat Aviation
Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, TF Fighting Eagles.
A
back wall medic is a combat medic who has been assigned to a
medical evacuation unit, said Staff Sgt. DJ Anderson of
Rocklin, Calif., a back wall medic instructor for 2-1 GSAB.
The back wall medics will go through additional training to
assist them in aviation missions.
Anderson added, the back wall
medic gets its name from the position of where they are in
the aircraft.
The U.S. Army came up with this program
to assist and provide better care for casualties, Anderson
said.
It's a great opportunity to help a great crew
of people to continue what they are doing here every day,
said Capt. Steve Scuba, the brigade nurse assigned to the
Gamblers, of Washington, D.C. “It's a really important and
critical mission here in Regional Command-South.”
“I
already had a little bit of skill set having flown in Iraq
with patient transports,” said Scuba.
Spc. Marisol
Landin, a combat medic assigned to the Gamblers, said medics
are always training in different techniques and medicine
always changes so they are always going to be learning
something new.
“This isn't exactly something that
comes around more than once or twice in a lifetime, so I
thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and try it,”
said Landin a native of Jacksonville, Texas.
Being a
flight medic is a complete different world from being a
ground medic, said Sgt. Krystal Arney, a back wall medic
instructor with 2-1 GSAB, from Lakeside, Calif.
“You
lose your sense of hearing, it's a confined working space
and you have more equipment to use than you normally have on
the ground. And there are different things you have to think
about when trying to get the patient to the hospital,” added
Arney.
Arney said they are trying to get the ground
medics used to working in an environment where they are
unable to verbally communicate with each other. Most of the
time, flight medics use hand signals.
For Scuba and
his five crew members, this is really new to them even
though he had flown patient transports in Iraq.
“The
group is doing great,” said Anderson. “We are doing trauma
lanes today and I'm impressed with what I'm seeing.”
“After seeing their skill level, we have some pretty
competent people that know what they are doing,” said Arney.
“Some of the things we do are a little different than the
ground units, so we are going to continue to train them a
little more to the way we do things.”
It's amazing
training, added Scuba, and They try to make it as realistic
as possible.
“The training was very well thought out
and I feel like I'm a lot more prepared,” said Landin. “It
was really good to go over some of the stuff that we have
been trained on before.”
Landin added, it works as a
refresher and preparation for what they will be doing in the
future.
“Being a medic is what I wanted to do, it's
something that I wouldn't give up and I don't regret
anything that I have done thus far,” said Landin.
Crawell said of the ground medics, “they will be integrated
into the unit and become part of the crew.”
“They're
a great group of people and we look forward to working with
them,” said Scuba.
By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Johnathan Hoover
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
Comment on this article |
