Frankfort, Ky. –
Combat medics from around Kentucky attended Tactical Combat Casualty Care recertification training to maintain their military occupational specialty skills at Boone National Guard Center Sept. 7-20.
Instructors from Detachment 1, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 238th Aviation, “Wildcat Dust-Off,” and local medical professionals conducted this two-week course with the intention of training Soldiers on triage treatment and evacuation procedures in a combat environment.
"[The course] is about continuing education hours in tactical combat casualty care, prolonged field care, and limited primary care,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jeremy Lowe, course coordinator, and a critical care flight paramedic with the 2-238th.
He added that the biggest takeaway from a course taught in this manner is the knowledge and experience the instructors bring as critical care flight paramedics.
“Our instructors have a wealth of real-life experience, a wealth of years of training to get to where they're at, and years on the job in different environments with multiple deployments. Our 68Ws can project out and forecast the next steps in medical care. If the base tasks are to stop bleeding, we go much further into what the first doctor is going to want out of a patient receiving that treatment to better prepare them for caring for a casualty for much longer than just minutes or an hour. We’re getting into prolonged field care or delayed evacuation casualty management, where you could have to care for a patient for 24 or 48 hours.”
In addition to the aviators instructing the course, Georgetown/Scott County Emergency Medical Services Emergency Medical Technician students acted as injury victims to help create a realistic training environment, according to Lowe. Moulage (makeup) artists also contributed to the realism by adding convincing wounds to the simulated victims participating in the training scenario.