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Twenty-one soldiers with various kandaks, or battalions, of the 1st ANA Brigade, 215th Corps, graduated from the brigade’s inaugural combat medics course during a here, Jan. 7. Throughout the five-week course, instructors taught the eager ANA soldiers preventative medicine, supply procedures, patient aftercare and clinic operations and procedures, using hands-on, practical application methods. “We also taught the soldiers how to treat patients at the point of injury,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Israel Rosa, a medical advisor with the Regimental Combat Team 5 embedded training team and 26-year-old native of Stanton, Texas. In addition to on-scene combat lifesaving techniques, students learned how to request a medical evacuation and provide continued care en-route to the next echelon of care. |
The combat medic course is in the process of becoming an ANA operated course as the brigade’s Marine and Navy advisors gradually shift into more of a supporting role.
“Now that we have successfully completed the first course, we can fine tune it and move forward with the next phase,” explained Rosa.
The medical advisors selected two potential instructors from soldiers who demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the concept of combat lifesaving.
“Not only did they understand and demonstrate proficiency with basic medic skills, they also had an understanding of why certain procedures are done,” Longbottom said. “They understand the ‘reason behind the rhyme’, which is an important trait to possess as an instructor.”
The completion of the course provides the brigade and its kandaks with more soldiers capable of providing critical, lifesaving care for their fellow soldiers operating in southern Helmand.
“The medics course will help us become more independent,” explains Maj. Abdul Baqi, the surgeon in charge of medical operations with 1/215. “We will be able to treat our own soldiers with our own medics.”
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