JBSA-FORT SAM HOUSTON –
Brooke Army Medical Center Emergency Medicine Department staff and residents joined forces June 16-22 with the Army Special Forces Soldiers to maximize their combat related medical training efforts at Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis.
"I am here because of guys like you," said Special Forces Maj. Will Lyles, as he spoke to doctors about combat wounds he endured in Afghanistan.
The department's goal is for their graduating residents to receive the best possible combat-related medical training in the Department of Defense. This is accomplished by training with other military units, such as the Army Special Forces, in more realistic scenarios to take full advantage of the opportunity to learn and train in what to expect out in the battlefield.
All graduating emergency medicine residents from BAMC - eight Army and eight Air Force residents - participated in the event.
Maj. (Dr.) Guyon Hill, BAMC emergency medicine physician, is one of several combat experienced physicians who are seeking to continually refine the combat casualty care aspect of the emergency medicine physician's training.
Hill pointed out the graduating residents excel in emergency medicine practices in an emergency room, but it is also equally important to learn how to practice emergency medicine near the battlefield.
"There is no exercise like an emergency medicine exercise in the military," Hill said. "Doctors in training work directly with a tactical unit to see the mission planning, tactical execution and medical care directly on the objective and all phases following."
The Emergency Medicine Department's exercise blends into field training conducted by the 19th Special Forces Group.
"The exercise is mutually beneficial by providing insight for Special Forces medical sergeants into the echelons of care ... as well as providing insight for emergency medicine doctors into Tactical Combat Casualty Care planning and execution in the battlefield," said a Special Forces representative.
The seven-day exercise included a classroom presentation on the TCCC process, a special lab exercise focusing on austere combat situations and hands-on practical training in the field.
The tactical scenarios involved situations as the doctors observed Special Forces instruction on patrolling, tactics and marksmanship. Once trained, the guerilla force and the Special Forces conducted a series of raids into enemy territory.
"The purpose of the EMX is to provide education in the areas of military medicine not found in the rest of their emergency medicine residency or in other schools they attend," Hill said. "It is to prepare them for deployments in any theater and/or their first jobs after residency.
"We replicated all three phases of care; care under fire, tactical field care, and tactical evacuation care and the entire theater evacuation chain from the point of injury to a definitive medical facility."
"The exercise also improved the rapport between the graduating residents and Special Forces. Both teams gained a great deal of respect from the rigorous training they endured during the seven day exercise," Hill said.
The event was a joint effort to include the 19th Special Forces Group, the Texas Army National Guard's 108th Aviation Regiment, Air Force Critical Care Air Transport Teams, 197th Special Troops Support Company and San Antonio Military Medical Center emergency medicine department staff and troops.
(Editor's note: Maria Gallegos, BAMC Public Affairs, contributed to the article)