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Corpsmen transport a notional patient onto an aircraft during a Tactical Combat Casualty Care training exercise at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Feb. 6-10, 2017. The TCCC teaches corpsmen new communication skills and how to care for a patient in a combat zone. The corpsmen are with 2nd Medical Battalion.

Photo by Lance Cpl. Ashley Lawson

2nd Medical Bn keeps more than knowledge alive

15 Feb 2017 | Lance Cpl. Ashley Lawson The Official United States Marine Corps Public Website

An open field where injured dummies lie was suddenly crowded as the recorded sound of a bomb reached the eardrums of corpsmen on a patrol nearby during a training exercise. With quick, sharp looks and a feeling of urgency, they each rushed to a wounded “Marine” to save their brothers’ lives.

Corpsmen with 2nd Medical Battalion participated in a Tactical Combat Casualty Care training exercise February 6-10, 2017, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

The TCCC is designed to give corpsmen the basic skills to work under pressure in a combat setting, ensure productive communication and save their patients’ lives. 

The students conducted a patrol, experienced notional enemy contact and rushed to dummies where they then dragged them out of the line of fire gave appropriate care and transported them to an aircraft.

“When taking care of injuries, they need to stop massive hemorrhaging in 3 minutes and relocate their patient out of the line of fire and to an aircraft in 6 to7 minutes,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Showalter, an instructor for Combat Trauma Management with 2nd Medical Battalion.

With Marines and sailors constantly leaving the base for training exercises and deployments, the corpsmen are required to keep their fellow service members safe and pass on their knowledge.

“It’s important to apply medicine in a tactical setting and save lives as effectively as possible,” stated Petty Officer 1st Class Emmanuel Pineda, an independent duty corpsman with Combat Logistics Regiment 25. “Those individuals will eventually end up in a clinical setting under the care of other corpsmen and it makes the cycle so much more effective.”

This training allows the corpsmen to be brought out of their comfort zone and discover more efficient ways of saving lives.

Once the training ended, the instructors went over ways to make the process more effective and how to take the new knowledge back to their units and share it.

The TCCC is one of many tools used to keep corpsmen up to date in their job field, as well as bolster combat readiness for possible deployments.

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