RE: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,150341,00.html

Sounds good to me! However, I am sure it will be next to impossible to keep 100 percent of any given company qualified annually. At least the company NCOs can at least worry about CLS refresher training instead of the full-blown course.

I first did this training in 1987, and I think its a great asset to any soldier. While I never had to use the training, I felt confident that I could at least do something to help in a bad situation.

EXCELLENT

Our Wounded Warriors' lives will be saved for it...

I don't know where Military.Com is getting its information but BCT Soldiers WILL NOT be certified in CLS. BCT Soldiers will be taught how to start an I.V. (saline lock) by Medical personal but all basic first aid will now be taught along with advance first aid (this will now be a skill level one requirement to pass BCT). Drill Sergeants are required to be CLS certified, and they are also the ones teaching the trainees but they can not certify anyone. Only Soldier's with certain medical MOS's can administer written and practical examination in order to certify a Soldier as a Combat Life Saver. Introducing an I.V. is a pershiable skill and with the level of recruits that the Army is receiving this may be more challenging then most people realize.

This is old news. Actually new for Fort Jackson (South Carolina) Basic Training. I'm a Battalion CSM here in the 434th Field Artillery Brigade, which conducts all Basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and we've been conducting Combat Lifesaver Training and certification since May 2007. That puts us ahead of Fort Jackson by four months. It figures that they get the publicity. Also, in response to the comment posted by "10638809", he is correct in saying that it requires a 68W (Combat Medic) to teach and certify these new Soldiers as Combat Lifesavers, which we fully do. The Drill Sergeants only act as Assistant Instructors, while the Medics conduct the Training and Certification. They learn and test on all the tasks required by AMEDD at Fort Sam Houston.

About time they figured this made sense.

While this sounds like a good program, I do have some reservations. First, most deploying units will train up to 50% of their troops to be CLS thus allocating resources in a timely matter. Doing such training in peace-time or non-mobing unit creates a time on target issue for personnel and time resources. Second, with refresher training being required once a year, for Guard and Reserve units that refresher training is the equivalent of one entire drill period. This means one twelveth of the training year is consumed. If ALL soldiers would need this refresher, the required METL training, unless a medical unit, would be negatively impacted. Third, once soldiers are CLS qualified, they are authorized a CLS bag. While most units will keep a numbered inventory of CLS bags, some items in the bag have shelf life constraints thus creating a potential supply issue. Lastly, the idea of scaled medical response (immediate aid to CLS to Combat Medic to BN Aid on up) makes maximum use of critical resources, those being human expertise, aid materials and transportation. In a way, the current medical response is similar to triage where decisions on treatment are centralized. By flattening this pyramid critical resources may become over burdened due to requests that may normally be delayed. As an Operations NCO, I am all about getting maximum results from resouces allocated to a mission so that is the perspective from which I am responding from.

Look OPNS NCO (GRINNY04), it is imperative that line (that be Infantry, Scout, Armor, Field Artillery, Combat Engineer, etc.) squads/sections have trained Combat Lifesavers (CLS), as many as possible.

GIVEN. Issuing the CLS Bag to everyone will not happen, cost prohibitive.

MOST IMPORTANT. THE CLS TRAINING OF EVERY WARRIOR IS PARAMOUNT, moreso than, "Consideration for Others" or whatever the hell they're calling the "Kumbahyah" (let me feel good about myself and you...) Required Training, these days...

Bottom line. A CLS Aid Bag per squad/section. The CLS Training Requirement added on your Mobilization Station prerequisite training prior to deployment. How hard is that...

LEAD THE WAY, Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

OUR WARRIORS FIRST and FOREMOST

quote:

Originally posted by grinny04:
While this sounds like a good program, I do have some reservations. First, most deploying units will train up to 50% of their troops to be CLS thus allocating resources in a timely matter. Doing such training in peace-time or non-mobing unit creates a time on target issue for personnel and time resources. Second, with refresher training being required once a year, for Guard and Reserve units that refresher training is the equivalent of one entire drill period. This means one twelveth of the training year is consumed. If ALL soldiers would need this refresher, the required METL training, unless a medical unit, would be negatively impacted. Third, once soldiers are CLS qualified, they are authorized a CLS bag. While most units will keep a numbered inventory of CLS bags, some items in the bag have shelf life constraints thus creating a potential supply issue. Lastly, the idea of scaled medical response (immediate aid to CLS to Combat Medic to BN Aid on up) makes maximum use of critical resources, those being human expertise, aid materials and transportation. In a way, the current medical response is similar to triage where decisions on treatment are centralized. By flattening this pyramid critical resources may become over burdened due to requests that may normally be delayed. As an Operations NCO, I am all about getting maximum results from resouces allocated to a mission so that is the perspective from which I am responding from.

August 1971 I join the Army with the intent to become a Medic. January 1971 I graduated as a 91A10 Aidman, we were taught how to start IV's with large bore IV sets utilized during Vietnam and other field training exercises. In my case this was a night jump during Parachute Ops at Ft Bragg. I was 18 yrs old and did not know the correct way to apply a bandaid. Go forward to 1984 during a 3rd Bde 9th Infantry Staff meeting, where the disucssion of a novel idea "should we give the line soldier (Grunt) the equipment and know how to save a buddies life ?". Just starting out as a new Warrant Medical Officer (PA), I shared my experiences as a young medic and gave my opinion, "if the Army in its trust could teach me to start an IV, I trusted anyone in the room with proper training, to start an IV on me." We called it buddy aid than. Several years later I was teaching my Medics how to train selected platoon members at platoon level to do CLS, which included IV fluids. I than retired and in 2003 returned as a Army Civilian Provider and found the program had expanded. I now interview soldiers returning from theater and some have relayed how lives were lost because medical help was not available. With each conflict capabilities of evacuation improve, and every second counts and buys time. In Medicine they call it the Golden Hour. If your buddy can give you a few extra seconds of that Golden Hour than he/she may have saved a life. The cost of that training will be more than worth it, and pay for itself. P.S. I still trust any Medic or CLS to start an IV on me before I would Physician or Nurse, (especially a PA-just kidding on the PA).

Waste of time, Why?
I would rather be able to select from personnel who is to be my CLS. To give an IV is not combat imperitave, since the saline solution is just for dehydration and not for blood loss, Drink water, as informed by a combat medic. The common tasks cover the most common life saving skills, prevent shock, stop the flow of blood, immobilizing broked bones, open airway, etc. The best training I ever had came from Doc(SF Guy), how to releive pressure from a sucking chest wound, even our medic did not know how to do that, field expedient method! Send them to me first so you have the best qualified personnel to be CLS. Another example of a bored Officer padding his OER and wasting valuable time with newbies already stressed trying to become Soldiers.