1st Armor Training Brigade: Growing Effective Soldiers

Today’s contemporary operating environment (COE) promotes the every-soldier-is-a-warrior idea. This idea, along with teaching the warrior tasks and battle drills (WTBD) at the basic training level, could imply that soldiers are only being taught to kill. What most people do not realize is that one-third of the WTBD are dedicated to movement and casualty care. Today’s soldiers are taught much more than just the basics of bandaging wounds and military occupational specialty-specific tasks and team-building exercises. Many new medical innovations are being learned and used in theater everyday. It is the responsibility of the 1st Armor Training Brigade (1ATB) to ensure that soldiers graduate from basic combat training with a much broader spectrum of skills and experiences brought on by the demands of the COE, as well as the operational tempo of deployments within the Army. These new soldiers are being trained by combat veterans who promote the idea that on graduation, these new soldiers may find themselves in theater sooner rather than later. Training these soldiers to save lives will ensure a well-rounded, warrior-based Army. The 1ATB, dedicated to developing innovative training techniques that support the initiative to train every soldier to simultaneously be a warrior and a combat lifesaver, has added new techniques to its training curriculum to ensure soldiers are capable of executing these procedures on the battlefield. Below is an overview of lifesaving procedures currently taught during basic training: Evaluate a casualty. 1ATB trains soldiers to identify casualties with life-threatening injuries first and evacuate those immediately. Soldiers with the most serious injuries will be administered combat aid immediately and in accordance with the most critical injury being treated first. Airway obstruction. Administering combat aid to an injured soldier with an airway obstruction requires inserting ana-sopharyngeal airway (NPA). 1ATB trains soldiers how use the NPA to maintain an open airway. Once the NPA is inserted and the patient’s airway is unobstructed, the soldier administering combat aid is free to assist other injured soldiers. NPAs are supplied in the improved first aid kit, which is currently being used in Iraq. The NPA can be used on any casualty whether conscious or unconscious, even if they have a gag reflex. Performing a needle decompression. Tension pneumothorax is a life-threatening injury, but was not addressed in the prior basic first aid. This type of injury is seen with penetrating chest trauma and blast injuries. 1ATB teaches soldiers the new technique of performing a needle decompression, which has led to a 96-percent survival rate among casualties. Semi-aluminum malleable splints (SAM). Guidelines for setting and splinting a fracture using SAM are incorporated into the fractures block of instruction. SAM splints are readily available in combat lifesaver bags and vehicle first aid kits. Combat application tourniquet (CAT). CAT is now incorporated into the control-bleeding block. Tourniquets save lives daily in Iraq. CAT is also found in the new improved individual first aid kit. The types of injuries seen from improvised explosive device (IED) strikes often involve severe bleeding. There have been multiple reports from theater of soldiers successfully performing self aid with these devices. Tactical combat casualty care (TC3). This is the capstone learning event of first aid training. In a real-world scenario, soldiers incorporate all of the skills they have been taught and execute those skills in a tactical scenario. In the classroom portion, they are taught how to set a tourniquet for severe bleeding in a nonsecure environment. TC3 teaches soldiers to treat casualties that can be saved. Other training innovations at 1ATB include communications instruction, where soldiers are taught how to use various new communications networks; and practical exercises have added the nine-line MEDEVAC and nine-line IED/unexploded ordnance reports to basic situation reports to give soldiers an initial look at the modern battlefield. Soldiers are also provided more confidence-building exercises. The most challenging of these exercises is Thunderbolt tower, which is a 100-foot rappelling tower that incorporates rope bridges and slides that all soldiers must negotiate. Confidence-building exercises are an incredible step forward; in the past, not all soldiers were required to complete this training — especially tankers. Soldiers are also put though the challenging teamwork-development course, which teaches young minds to think through realistic challenges, builds teams, and raises morale. This course was only taught as a leader development course to noncommissioned officers and officers — the COE demands young soldiers serve in combat leadership roles much sooner than previously anticipated. All of this individual training comes together at the military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) site, where soldiers are exposed to mounted and dismounted patrol operations and react to blocked and unblocked ambushes. The MOUT site currently uses IED simulators, as well as suicide vests, and places soldiers in scenarios that force them to react to contact, evaluate a casualty, perform first aid, evacuate a casualty, report to higher headquarters using new communications systems, secure an IED, and clear buildings. They also are often put into ethical dilemmas that cause them to choose the hard right over the easy wrong. Growing effective soldiers is a responsibility that 1ATB takes very seriously. Keep ing the force informed of changes that effect how soldiers are expected to perform on the battlefield is a critical element of that responsibility. To keep pace with today’s operational tempo, 1ATB stands ready and prepared to make necessary adjustments and changes that will produce trained soldiers, who are ready to fight the enemy and save lives at the same time. 1st Armor Training Brigade: Growing Effective Soldiers by Captain Anthony M. Rose — 53