thedrifter
09-28-07, 06:55 AM
As Marines and sailors with 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines completed final preparations for artillery and small arms live-fire training here, the battalion’s medical personnel readied their battalion aid station team with a medical evacuation drill Sept.15.
The response drill is a requirement before livefire training and allows the battalion’s medical team to evaluate the efficiency of its personnel, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Dustin B. Jones, the head instructor during the training.
“During live-fire missions, medical evacuation training is required to find out how smooth things are going to go and how fast we can get things done,” Jones said. “Because we’ve got some junior corpsmen with us, it’s also served as a way to train them up on what to do when nobody else is around except for them.”
The scenario had corpsmen, with assistance from Marines who had completed the combat lifesavers course, respond to a seven-ton truck roll-over that caused several casualties.
“We had the medical personnel respond to injuries such as blunt chest trauma, arterial cuts, broken bones and heat casualties,” Jones said. “The corpsmen had to basically do everything they’re taught in school: assess the situation, establish who’s critical, who needs to be treated right away and who needs to be evacuated.”
Jones said everything was done to make the scenario as realistic as possible.
Throughout the drill, the casualty role players were encouraged to yell in pain and, at times, be uncooperative toward the corpsmen and Marines, he said. The casualties’ behavior, along with the application of gory make-up and fake blood to simulate actual injuries, added essential chaos to the training.
“Breaking out the (make-up) kit and putting it on the casualties helped out the corpsmen a lot,” Jones said. “They can actually see the wounds. It improves the training because a lot of times with drills like this, instructors are just saying, ‘Hey, this person has wounds here.’ It definitely added realism to the training.”
Lt. Cmdr. Gregg J. Montalto, the regimental surgeon with 12th Marines, said that although he saw room for improvement, he was satisfied with the results of the drill.
“We picked out a lot of things that we can fix immediately. For example, we had some radio issues that probably set us back 20 minutes, but we solved the problem out in the field and if it happens tomorrow in a real situation, we will save an extra 20 minutes.”
The response drill is a requirement before livefire training and allows the battalion’s medical team to evaluate the efficiency of its personnel, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Dustin B. Jones, the head instructor during the training.
“During live-fire missions, medical evacuation training is required to find out how smooth things are going to go and how fast we can get things done,” Jones said. “Because we’ve got some junior corpsmen with us, it’s also served as a way to train them up on what to do when nobody else is around except for them.”
The scenario had corpsmen, with assistance from Marines who had completed the combat lifesavers course, respond to a seven-ton truck roll-over that caused several casualties.
“We had the medical personnel respond to injuries such as blunt chest trauma, arterial cuts, broken bones and heat casualties,” Jones said. “The corpsmen had to basically do everything they’re taught in school: assess the situation, establish who’s critical, who needs to be treated right away and who needs to be evacuated.”
Jones said everything was done to make the scenario as realistic as possible.
Throughout the drill, the casualty role players were encouraged to yell in pain and, at times, be uncooperative toward the corpsmen and Marines, he said. The casualties’ behavior, along with the application of gory make-up and fake blood to simulate actual injuries, added essential chaos to the training.
“Breaking out the (make-up) kit and putting it on the casualties helped out the corpsmen a lot,” Jones said. “They can actually see the wounds. It improves the training because a lot of times with drills like this, instructors are just saying, ‘Hey, this person has wounds here.’ It definitely added realism to the training.”
Lt. Cmdr. Gregg J. Montalto, the regimental surgeon with 12th Marines, said that although he saw room for improvement, he was satisfied with the results of the drill.
“We picked out a lot of things that we can fix immediately. For example, we had some radio issues that probably set us back 20 minutes, but we solved the problem out in the field and if it happens tomorrow in a real situation, we will save an extra 20 minutes.”