Combat Life Saver (CLS) Training

These past three days we have had Combat Life Saver (CLS) training. For some of us this was the third time in less than 2 years we have received this training. I received it in July 2005 as part of the ANA (Afghan National Army) Training. Last September we received this training at Fort Hunter Liggett and now here at Ft. Riley. The four day training was done in two days and we really focused on the 2 or 3 things that we would need to do to keep a fellow soldier alive until a medic or surgeon could treat him. As mentioned in the class with the body armor saving soldiers lives, most of the injuries that occur are in the limbs, so stopping the bleeding and sucking chest wounds are important. Additionally clearing the airway was emphasized and taught. We also learned how to prevent the lung from collapsing due to a sucking chest wound. Everyones favorite part was inserting the IV into your battle buddy's arm. This time we inserted an IV block and then the IV, unlike last time I did not spill any of my battle buddy's blood when sticking him. I only saw one soldier who was being stuck pass out.

The last day we did two scenarios where we would have to put to practice what we learned the past two days. In the first scenario they replicated a mess hall being hit by mortar fire (mortar round simulator included). There was smoke coming out of the building, lights were out, chairs strewn all over the floor and four Soldiers who had been moulaged up with various injuries laying on the floor. We located them, if bleeding severely we stopped the bleeding and then moved them out of the building to the casualty collection point (CCP), where we continued administering first aid while calling in a medevac. The second scenario we were moving in our four rifle teams to an objective and first got attacked by an enemy vehicle shooting their machine gun. Then we set up a traffic control point and the rest of the soldiers went into the woodline to search for the enemy mortar site that had shelled the dining facility earlier. While attacking we got several soldiers hit and then while assaulting the final objective, yours truly was killed and so was my battle buddy. Although the mortar site was taken by our team, the cost was high and the casualties had to be treated by the survivors. We finished up, cleaned our weapons and then took the bus back to turn in our weapons for what remained of the weekend. I like most dozed off for a few well deserved minutes of shuteye.

This event marked for us the end of the 40/11 (40 individual and 11 collective) tasks required for us to deploy to the box. The remaining time will be to train us in the areas that we will be working in during our deployment. For our Soldiers it will be in the area of logistics.