Sasebo Sailors Learn to Save Lives in Battle

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Richard Doolin, Navy Public Affairs Support Element, Det. Sasebo

SASEBO, Japan (NNS) -- Sasebo-based master-at-arms completed a tactical combat casualty care course normally reserved for hospital corpsman May 21.

Under simulated weapons fire, one-by-one Sailors crawled, climbed and ran over rough terrain to reach and care for four injured comrades which were played by dummies.

"This isn't a first aid class," said Chief Hospital Corpsman Erik Rasmussen. "This is geared towards some basic, simple things to do to save a life - to intervene and save a life during combat."

"The one [injury] that's the most preventable and causes the most deaths right now, the most preventable deaths, is traumatic hemorrhage," said Rasmussen.

The first simulated injury Sailors encountered was a traumatic hemorrhage - a gunshot wound to the thigh's femoral artery. Rescuers had to apply a tourniquet to the wound in less than three minutes to prevent the simulated casualty from bleeding to death. In an effort to add more realistic battlefield stress to the training, instructors constantly pressured the students with multiple injuries and cries for medical attention.

"Hey! I'm hit! I'm hit!" boomed from the voices of exercise observers and trainers. "You need to move it! Let's go! I'm hit, guy! Let's go! Hurry up! Get up here! Get up here, now! Let's go! Move it! Start running! Come on! Someone's hit! Someone's hit! Hurry! Hurry," kept students motivated.

The exercise was physically and mentally stressful. After treating the first casualty, students had to "bear crawl" 100-feet to the next injury, somebody in need of a tension-pneumothorax, which involves slamming a needle into the chest to release trapped air from the lungs.

"It is pretty tough," Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Philip Higgins said of the training. "But you can get through it. You have to remember everything you learned in class to get through it though. For real-life battle there is going to be a lot of yelling and gunfire, so you got to work beyond that and not pay attention to it."

In the final phase of the exercise, students carried a heavy dummy to a simulated helicopter.

Considering that this class of combat caregivers were not medical professionals, course instructors though the master-at-arms crew did well.

"I think it was one of the best [exercises] I've seen," said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Kyle Fackender. "It was very fun, very athletic, everybody got tired and stressed out - we all did our job well."