HAWTHORNE ARMY DEPOT, Nev. -- Sailors with 4th Medical Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group at exercise Javelin Thrust 2009 boarded a KC-130 Hercules aircraft here June 12 to take part in a course that aims at keeping combat injured Marines alive as they are transported from the field to permanent medical facilities.
The trip was part of a course breakdown for the U.S. Navy’s en route care course, which instructs corpsmen, nurses and doctors in the treatment and stabilization of patients while transporting them from a field environment to a level of higher care.
The keystone of the course is training on the En Route Care System, an expeditious pack of medical machinery and equipment that attaches to a litter over the patient and monitors his or her life signs.
These medical personnel are required to prepare a patient and the machinery, and board a helicopter in fewer than five minutes.
“The training is excellent,” said Cmdr. Pete Redmon, 4th Medical Battalion nurse practitioner, and a family nurse practitioner in his civilian career. “This is more intense than the civilian side because a patient is stable when they are transported here, but in the field you work as you move.”
The group of students and instructors boarded and set up shop in a Hercules from Marine Aerial Refeuler Transport Squadron 452. They then transported a mock patient from here to Naval Air Station Fallon, Nev.
Each of the students was challenged to diagnose the patient’s symptoms while being jostled around the aircraft in the thin mountain air.
“I was treating the patient when the commander put goggles on me to simulate darkness,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Alecea Simpson. “Most medical evacuation flights are done at night for safety reasons, so now I have to concentrate on working with a patient in the dark.”
Truly the most important aspect of the course, however, is keeping Marines and sailors alive.
“The important part of the training is taking care of a casualty after we’ve seen them at our shock trauma platoon,” said Capt. John Williams, 4th Medical Battalion commanding officer. “After we’ve done what we can, we have to fly the patient to the next echelon of care, where they can have life saving surgery. En-route care keeps the Marine or sailor alive for that period of time.”
The course was extremely successful, according to Williams. The sailors were trained to provide a high level of medical attention and overcome difficult obstacles.
“The great thing about the en route care course is the ability to bring it out of the classroom and into a real world environment,” Williams said. “Flying out of an expeditionary air field and providing a level of medical attention usually found in an intensive care unit, but doing it in an aircraft that’s noisy and shaking. It’s inspiring that they are able to provide that level of care in such a difficult environment.”
The sailors and Marines of 4th Medical Bn. will continue to train at the highest level for the rest of exercise Javelin Thrust 2009. The exercise allows the force to practice a wide range of combat and logistics capabilities and is a large-scale exercise being conducted to prepare Reserve unites for their role in deployed Marine Air Ground Task Forces.