Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Herschel Talley | A team of competitors quickly dons their protective masks in under 9 seconds during a...... read more read more
At the Mead Training Site, Members of the 110th Multifunctional Medical Battalion (MMB) held the first newly renamed Sgt. 1st Class Tricia Lynn Jameson Squad Medic Challenge on September 8, 2018; as 12 Squads of 48 soldiers met at the Mead Training Site, Mead, Nebraska, to compete and take home the honor of being named the best medic squad.
Sgt. 1st Class Tricia Lynn Jameson was killed in action on July 14, 2005 while treating wounded Marines in western Iraq. It is to her memory that the Prairie Medic Challenge was renamed the Sgt. 1st Class Tricia Lynn Jameson Squad Medic Challenge this year.
Second Lt. Ledontrae Gooden of the 110th MMB was the officer in command of the challenge and said their intent was to go big this year.
“We wanted to the change the standards to our EMFB (Expert Field Medical Badge) standards. Medics or anyone can go and compete to earn the badge. My team and I got together and looked up what the EMFB course had for lanes and different things of that nature. So, we said ‘why not?’” said Gooden.
This year’s challenge has added several different obstacles such as military working dog triage, crossing water with a liter and conducting a tracheotomy on a set of pig lungs and airway.
“Why not add tracheas (to the challenge)?’ You do that as a medic anyways to save someone’s life, so why not add it?” said Gooden.
The event was held at the Mead Training Site and while the competition lanes did not start until Saturday morning, the challenge began Friday night with a mass casualty exercise.
“We had a lot going on last night,” said Gooden. “They were asleep in their barracks and we set up improvised explosive device (IED) simulators up in between their barracks and at about 2335, we set them off and got them going. Our observer-coach-trainers (OCTs) started banging on their doors and getting them out of their beds to getting their gear on. From there, we had our artillery simulators going and parachute illumination flares and they were rushing out of the barracks. We were telling them a mass casualty was going on with patients while being attacked and they were just rushing all over the forward operating base (FOB) to get them triaged.”
Outside in the FOB, the trainers has artillery simulators going off, parachute lumens flares, a speaker system playing combat sounds, along with patients that were moulaged and spread out over the FOB. The simulation lasted nearly 40 minutes with all patients being triaged and treated.
During an exercise of that scale is when being prepared and communication were big teaching points from the evening’s excitement, Gooden added.
“We caused organized chaos. It was a good training event, I think our medics really enjoyed that while not getting a full night’s sleep,” said Gooden. “They did excellent. I’m proud of them.”
The next morning was the official beginning of the Squad Medic Challenge, pitting the 12 teams against each other in a series of challenges around the training site. Along with the more traditional simulations of vehicle collisions with injuries, battlefield injuries or treating patients under fire; the teams were challenged to triage patients in a simulated chemical attack. After donning their protective equipment, the teams set out to find their patients. Once an initial treatment had been done, the soldiers had to move the patient and themselves while under fire to a safe area, before beginning decontamination of the patients and themselves.
At another station, the squads were given the mission to find patients in a darken room with combat audio playing in the back ground, treat the patients, and also administer an IV and perform tracheotomy all in near total darkness with only red light to see. The tracheotomy was perform on a set of pig lungs and airways for the simulation and added a sense of realism the medics rarely receive.
Staff Sgt. Dustin Wondercheck, of the 110th MMB, was a grader for the station and hopes to see more training with live tissue.
“It’s just good for them to get the feeling of actually cutting tissue. As far as the cricothyrotomy (the cutting of the skin and cricothyroid membrane to establish an airway), there is no other simulation where they get to cut live tissue with a scalpel, “said Wondercheck.
“On a few of them, they’ve seen the lungs inflate with the bag mask. A lot of them have been in for three or four years and have never been able to do it, so being able to do this at least annually would be great.”
Another station was set up to educate the competitors about how to triage military working dogs. Shawna Burke, a licensed veterinarian technician, taught the medics the basics of how to treat injured dogs including IVs, chest decompressions and catheters. Burke said this was her second time assisting the National Guard with training and thoroughly enjoyed it.
“I would love to do this more. The amount of training the soldiers get here is amazing,” said Burke.
“These military working dogs are an extension of our soldiers and I feel like the team they provide together is so good for our nation that to be able to provide medically is essential.”
For the competitors of the 2018 Sgt 1st Class Tricia Lynn Jameson Squad Medic Challenge ended fatigued, having spent every ounce of energy they had out on the lanes, but with spirits high after trying to prove their team was the best in the name of Sgt 1st Class Jameson. Third place went to Sgt. Jared Callahan, Spc. Shawn Fleischman, Spc. Michael Stufft, and Pvt. 2nd Class Ashlyn Schmidt all of the 313th. Second place also went to a 313th team consisting of Sgt. Aaron Pohlman, Spc. Colton Engel, Spc. Christian Magilton, Spc. Jeffery Ostwald. The winners of the firsts newly rename 2018 Tricia Lynn Jameson Squad Medic Challenge went to Sgt. Jacob Shindollar, Spc. Sierra Koch, Spc. Lizzette Martinez and Pvt. 1st Class Danielle McNeel all of the 313th Medical Company.
Staff Sgt. Amber Strong knew and served with Jameson and said she was very deserving of the honor and of how much the recognition meant to her family.
“She was really dedicated to her military job. She had a big heart and was a very caring person “ said Strong. “The battalion hasn’t forgotten her.”
| Date Taken: | 09.08.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.10.2023 08:01 |
| Story ID: | 446668 |
| Location: | MEAD, NEBRASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 104 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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