Tongan Marines Train For Iraq Duty [Archive] - Marine Corps

thedrifter

10-04-07, 09:46 AM

Tongan Marines Train For The Horrors Of War

Second of a two part series on Tongan Marines training for Irag published in the Desert Voice Magazine, which is published for U.S. and Coalition Forces' camps in Kuwait and Iraq. This article was on the front page of DV on September 26th 2007. (http://www.arcent.army.mil/news_letters/2007/september/26sep%20desert%20voice.htm)

Story and photos by Master Sgt. Michele Hammonds 1st TSC Public Affairs

Left: A Tongan Marine puts his medical skills to the test as he works on a casualty during the Tactical Combat Casualty Care training course at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Sept. 11.

Fifty Royal Marines from the Kingdom of Tonga did not storm the tropical beach in their native homeland – rather they hit the desert sand when they went through medical training at the medical skills training facility at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Sept. 11.
The Tonga contingent is headed to Baghdad where they will employ the skills they learned during their stay in the Third Army / U.S. Army Central operational area.

The U.S. military and civilian contractors provided medical training to 50 Tongan Marines led by Capt. Toni Fonokalafi, senior national representative contingent commander.

Tongan Marines work together on a casualty during the Tactical Combat Casualty Care tactic procedures training course at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Sept. 11.

Fonokalafi commented on the hands-on training as he went through the four-hour tactical Combat Casualty Care, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures class.

“Recently we had (U.S.) Marines come over to Tonga for a week of training, after that we came through Camp Pendleton for another two weeks of training with the U.S. Marines,” he said. “Then we came to Camp Buehring for another week.”

“Now is our final week of training with the Army. Some of the training is repetitious, but overall it is good training for the team to get ready for the task ahead of us.”

The medical training not only provided medical hands-on-training, but it also helped the Tonga Marines build confidence, said Fonokalafi.

“All of this training gives us the confidence to do what is expected of us in Iraq,” he said. “Like today, this medical training has shown us how to treat people in these situations (scenarios given in class) and this builds our confidence in whatever we should do in the north.”

Fonokalafi said his Marines were eager to go through the practical exercises and hands-on training in Third Army/US Army Central’s area before moving up north to assume their new assignment.

Brent Cloud, medical simulations training instructor, demonstrates the proper way to apply a tournique to a training dummy at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Sept. 11.
“We are currently in Kuwait doing our final part of the training. Everybody is happy and everybody is excited to move on and conduct the missions outlined for us,” Fonokalafi said.

Tongan society is a very close-knit community of small islands. Many of the deployed Marines are related to one another, said Capt. Soane Aholelei, 2nd platoon leader for Tongan Marines.

“It’s a saying back home that everyone knows a bit about each other, “ Aholelei said. “Seeing the reality of what may happen – we need this type of skill to save the guy right next to us.”

The Marines went through a battery of hands-on training using mannequins to practice on, working to keep a patient alive until trained medical staff arrives.

Spc. James McClellan, of the 213th Air Support Medical Company, Arkansas National Guard, provided assistance to the Tongan’s they went through the hand’s-on training.

“I think they are doing real well,” said McClellan, a registered nurse with the White River Medical Center, Batesville, Ark., where he resided before he deployed with his guard unit. “They are energetic and want to learn how to do the medical tasks, and that goes a long way.”

Tongan Marines work on a causualty training dummy during Tactical Combat Casualty Care tactics, techniques, and procedures training course at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Sept. 11.

Brent Cloud, medical simulations training instructor, was the primary trainer for the Tongans. “We do what we can (in) getting the guys in here and we try to provie them with quality training,” said Cloud, who teaches about 300 military personnel a day and 1,500 aq week, including coalition forces, “We try to accommodate every one regardless of their skill set,” and apparently regardless of their nationality as well.

Editor's note: This article was forwarded to Tonga-Now by "Proud-Tongan" from the U.S.

Let us continue to uplift our Marines in prayer.

Ellie