First aid training continues for infantry battalion Soldiers, even in the mist of redeployment

Courtesy Photo | Chief Warrant Officer 3 Douglas Dombrowski, battalion maintenance officer, Headquarters to Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment, 224th Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), a native of Gatesville, Texas, practices applying an Combat Application Tourniquet on a fellow Soldier June 27 at Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq.  

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, IRAQ

07.19.2010

Courtesy Story

13th Armored Corps Sustainment Command (13th ESC)

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq – Training never stops for the soldiers of Headquarters to Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment as they continue 27 June to undergo Combat Lifesaver Re-certification Training.

The training is being conducted for the next two weeks at the 28th Combat Support Hospital Optometry Room on Saturdays and Sundays. The training extends the soldier’s certification and keeps their confidence up, should an injury or accident arise.

Staff Sgt. Napoleon Solis, senior medic non-commissioned officer and training instructor, Headquarters to Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment, 224th Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), a native of Pharr, Texas, said that the one thing he wanted all his students to take away from the class was knowledge to save another person’s life.

Solis gives every class highlights key areas of emphasis that every Soldier should take away from this training.

“Medical information and techniques for treatment are constantly being improved and changed and every Soldier must be frequently refreshed and re-taught to keep up with the latest trends; just like anything else, skills are perishable and must be maintained,” Solis said.

Solis instructs his classes by reading various scenarios from handouts, doing hands-on practical exercises (lessons), and then having his classes take a group examination. One soldier, Spc. Gilberto San Pedro, a supply specialist from HHC, 3-141 IN BN, 224th SB, 103rd ESC, a native of San Benito, Texas, said that he enjoyed the class because the instructor was realistic and gave real-life scenario-based training and kept the class interested with his comical sense of humor. San Pedro also said that it is always good to stay refreshed in medical training because anything can happen at any time.

The ten specific lessons that are being covered in the class for the Soldiers to stay re-certified include: initiating a tactical combat casualty case card, requesting medical evacuation, applying an emergency bandage to an extremity, applying a combat application tourniquet to an extremity, open a casualty’s airway and check for breathing, insert a nasopharyngeal airway, treat an open chest wound, perform a needle chest decompression, secure a casualty to a litter, and evacuate with a litter.

“The training is vital, imperative, and important enough that everyone on COB Adder should attend because someday somebody might have to save your life,” said Sgt. Salvador Mendez, administrative non commissioned officer from the HHC, 3-141 IN BN, 224th SB, 103rd ESC, a native of San Juan, Texas.

So as the soldiers of HHC 3-141 IN BN continue to re-certify on their Combat Lifesaver Training, they are reminded of the vital role they play in their unit when it comes to saving lives. At the end of the classroom instruction and examination, each soldier walks away with his or her certificate of training and is a certified Combat Life Saver for another year.

• Date Taken: 07.19.2010
• Date Posted: 07.19.2010 04:00
• Story ID: 53032
• Location: CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, IQ