First off. Here's a video. It's about 6 minutes. It shows why the medical and surgical teams do what they do overseas. http://www.militarytimes.com
These pictures are just a few of the ones taken. The ones where we were actually in the field are on my disposable camera that I have to get developed. Okay, so these are our "hutmets". That's our "home". We would be busy most of the time, and then would have random time to do nothing....so we'd listen to our ipods, lay on the cot and enjoy the breeze when we had one, discuss wanting to go to the bathroom after eating all the damn mre's, talk about which mre's are the best and share the m&m's if anyone was lucky enough to get one of those.
The first few days we were bused from camp bullis over to fort sam for our professional classes. All the nurses attended TNCC. (trauma nursing care course) Somehow I managed to pass the written and skills test. Weee. Those were long days of classes.
Then, Monday we woke up at the buttcrack of dawn, loaded the duce and a half and drove our convoy out to our little campsite. We had our duffle bag, ruck sack, vest, and weapon that we had to lug around. That's some tough stuff. I don't know how some of the guys do this for marches. So, Monday we had some briefs and then broke up and learned land navigation, security operations, how to call a medevac on the radio, weapons familiarization, decontamination if a chemical/biological threat hit us, how to do field dressings, how to load ambulances out in the field. It was a fun day.
Tuesday, we marched out and set up a navy FAS (forward aid station). Basically, a small tent used to get guys straight from the field wounded, triage, patch them up and make them stable, and get them straight on a medevac. We took turns doing different roles. Sometimes, we carried the patients as a litter carrier, once I was the medevac officer in charge of the status of all the patients and when they were going to get a medevac out. Sometimes, we got to be the physicians or corpsmen working on the patients. Some of the other students were playing injured patients. After lunch, we switched and now I got to be the injured patient. That was fun. Later that day, we went on mock convoys. We turned a corner and found that an IED had hit a truck and there were dummies injured and laying everywhere. We had to jump out of the truck, run and set up a perimeter and let the corpsmen triage and bandage the patient and we got them on the ambulances. That whole thing actually gave me goosebumps. I can't imagine doing it for the real thing. Then, we learned how the army BAS (battalion aid station) worked. Very similar to the navy FAS, but a little smaller.
Wednesday we went to this training facility and went through their tactical simulator. That almost made me pee my pants. It was like a haunted house. Dark, smoky, noisy (people screaming and gunfire going off) and we had to run in rooms, clear them, and find the mannequins and pull them to safety and treat them. It gives you a fraction of an idea of what it's like to be a line corpsmen or medic. You have to work on these wounded guys without being able to see very well or hear if they're breathing and you have the fear of being shot yourself the whole time. It was great training. Then, we went to the litter obstacle course. Oh dear God that was hard. We were on litter teams carrying a mannequin through the woods. Over tall walls, over creeks, through a freaking sand pit with barbed wire, etc. The mannequin was only 140 lbs too! In real life he'd be like 200 or more with all his gear etc. I was freaking exhausted after that run. And these guys do it all the time! We went back to our hutmets that day and got to shower!
Thursday was graduation and everyone but the navy left. We navy folk went out on the range all day to play with guns. Weee. That night, we all cleaned up and went to the riverwalk. That was seriously the BEST freaking time I have ever had on the riverwalk. We went bar hoping, dancing for hours in this one place that has 70's, 80's, and 90's music. It was freaking hilarious.
Things that were typical military:
-briefs. bah.
-waking up to someone banging on my door yelling "reveille"
-mre's. by the way....always add cheese and tobasco and it makes it much better. the sloppy joe and jambalaya ones are excellent!
-no shower
-sweaty kevlar strap that made me break out and look like a leper
-cots. way too small. how do these big guys do it. it killed my back. thankfully, the docs all came around and aligned our backs for us! :)
-gross humor. that's the best. the sad thing is....i had heard some of that stuff that even the guys hadn't all heard!
Not typical military: ( yay being an officer...we're not watched as much. haha)
-a night of streaking by the young, army docs! Just combat boots and gas masks.....I saw too much that night!!!
-stripping on top of your cot while changing in our coed tents with flashlights dancing around.
-mannequins with legs blown off and not the real thing. it gives you an idea, but still not the real thing.
We all spent a lot of time at the USO at the san antonio airport. It's like my home away from home. I would curl up with a blanket and take a nap in a leather recliner. It is the best place to hang out when I'm waiting for a flight!
It was such amazing training. The instructors were army, navy, and air force NCO's that have all been in combat. Some of the corpsmen were in fallujah when that big force hit years ago. One army guy was with the rangers in Somalia (like on black hawk down). They all would sit down and tell us stories. I can't imagine seeing what they've seen. They were the best teachers and instructors. It was supposed to prepare us so if we're in iraq and on a convoy and it gets hit, we know what to do and what everyone else is doing. Scary thought, but it happens. Again, I can't really stop this war and it's only going to get worse because other countries are losing to the radicals, but I can at least be there to help with medical aid to try and limit the loss.
More pictures will be up later.
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