Photo By Capt. Monika Comeaux | Iraqi students at the basic medic course of the Iraqi Army Support and Services...... read more read more
As the Iraqi army expands and gets stronger, there is an increasing need for combat medics. The Iraqi Army Support and Services Institute at Taji has been running a course for the past couple of months to fulfill that need.
"We started and built up the course here. We had a disc, a laptop and some students in the classroom," said Staff Sgt. Brandy N. Hall, an operating room technician who is now an instructor at the basic medic course of the IASSI. Hall is a Reservist from San Antonio, Texas and has been with the school since April. Since she is a surgical technician in her civilian life, she has plenty of medical experience to share with her students.
"We are training them to be combat medics, so when they go out on convoys, they can help their own, and they don't have to rely on American sources to come in and help them out," said Spc. Christian A. Thompson, a combat medic and a basic medic course instructor at the IASSI.
Sixty students attend the course in each rotation. They are broken down into two 30-soldier teams for instruction purposes. Iraqi units from all over the country send their soldiers. Some already have medical training, but for some, everything they learn is new.
The course is five weeks long, but includes some off-time for religious holidays and breaks for the students to visit their families, said Sgt. 1st Class Patty A. McFarland, the NCOIC of the basic medic course.
Students learn patient assessment, trauma assessment, medical emergencies, some preventive medicine, how to call in a nine-line medical evacuation request, how to properly administer IVs, and how to deal with mass casualties, McFarland said.
Students also practice giving each other different types of shots with saline solution. Thompson said a lot of medications used by the Iraqis come in the form of injections, so students need to be proficient at administering them.
"This course is really intense. It is a lot of information in a short period of time. They do 80 percent hands-on," McFarland said. "Students enjoy the practical exercises and sometimes need to be reminded how vital it is to memorize certain things."
The highlight of the training for both students and instructors is the mass casualty exercise at the end of the course.
"We are yelling at them, trying to create as much chaos as possible. At the end we brief them about what they did right, what they did wrong," said Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Jami M. Skornia, a hospital corpsman who is also an instructor at IASSI.
The instructors said they want to make sure they use moulage techniques that are easy to reproduce. They don't want to use simulated injuries out of a state-of-the-art moulage kit, because the Iraqi army would not have access to things like that. They use Surgilube, food coloring and markers to simulate the injuries.
"As they go along, they will save more and more lives. I feel awesome. I bring in all my knowledge to give it to someone else," McFarland said. "I watch their enthusiasm and their eagerness to learn."
"The students like to show you that they listen to you," Skornia said. "It really makes me feel good that once I am done teaching and start asking questions, they give me the correct answers." Skornia is stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and gives different medical classes back home on a regular basis, which made her the perfect candidate for this job.
Being a female instructor for the all-male Iraqi army does't pose any difficulties for McFarland, Skornia or Hall.
"Once you stand up there in front of the class and you take charge of the class, they treat you the same as the male instructors," Hall said.
"They do thank us and appreciate what we do for them, and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to teach them," Skornia said.
The students aren't the only ones who learn new things during the course. The daily interaction enables their instructors to learn about the Iraqi culture and to pick up some of the language.
"I have learned more Arabic than I ever thought I would. I can carry on a small conversation, and, if need be, I can get my point across and understand what they are saying without an interpreter," Hall said.
All instructors hope they make a lasting impression on their students.
Thompson said he had the chance to do everything he wanted to do during his deployment and being assigned to IASSI was a bonus.
"This allowed me to leave something behind when I go back home," he said.
Hall hopes that a couple of years down the road she will read articles about her students teaching their own students.
"It is one of the better jobs that you can have here, because you know what you are doing here is going to make all the U.S. troops eventually able to go home. The Iraqi army is going to be strong enough," Skornia said.
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| Date Taken: | 12.15.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 12.15.2005 06:01 |
| Story ID: | 4092 |
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| Web Views: | 118 |
| Downloads: | 37 |
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