WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Hearing the acronym SABC will soon be a thing of the past for not only 445th Airlift Wing Airmen but for the Department of Defense with the Self-Aid and Buddy Care training being replaced by Tactical Combat Casualty Care courses.
To help transition the 445th AW to the new course, a mix of members attended a TCCC course Jan. 8 in Hangar 4026, including security forces, civil engineer and aerial port.
Senior Master Sgt. Sean Smith, the 445th Aeromedical Staging Squadron superintendent, compiled a team from ASTS and the 445th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron to teach, demonstrate and evaluate members on the subject.
Airmen learned techniques to be used in combat environments and how to properly use quick response equipment in those scenarios.
“It’s a good class and very interesting,” Smith said.
One of the first statistics Airmen learn during TCCC is that most causalities die before reaching medical professionals. The main goal of the course is to bring preventable deaths down to zero with four tiers of training that can be taken.
The January training covered Tier 1 which is designed for all service members. The other three tiers build on each other and are based on the service member’s skillset and position in medical training.
Topics covered in the course include first aid kits, rapid casualty assessment, basic care and identifying head injuries. Topics were broken down into five lifesaving skills and three phases.
The skills consist of rapid casualty assessment, tourniquet application, hemostatic dressing, pressure dressing and airway maneuvers. The phases consist of care under fire or threat, tactical field care, and tactical evaluation.
The acronym MARCH was used to teach the skills portion of the training.
M: Massive bleeding. Students learn to identify the need for a tourniquet, dressing, pressure bandage or none of the above. The combat application tourniquet is found in standard medical kits, and students learned to look for bright red blood as a sign of severe bleeding. With hands-on training, the students also learned where to put a tourniquet and how tight to crank it down.
“High and tight,” was how Tech. Sgt. Anthony Pasley, a 445th ASTS medic, described the application of a tourniquet. Pasley partnered with Staff Sgt. Jason Lovett, a 445th ASTS biomedical equipment technician, to cover the massive bleeding portion of training.
ARCH: The rest of the acronym stands for airway, respiration, circulation and hypothermia. All of these aspects were covered by Maj. John Battista, a 445th AES flight nurse, and Tech. Sgt. Jeromy Bacher, a 445th ASTS biomedical equipment technician.
The two covered opening an airway with a head or chin tilt, and/or a jaw thrust. The airway techniques led into respiration and the importance of recognizing signs of bad respiration. The duo spent time teaching the identification and treatment of shock and hypothermia as well. Massive blood loss can lead to both.
Capt. Amanda Hostetter, a 445th AES flight nurse, and Staff Sgt. Taylor Fife, a 445th AES flight medic, covered eye wounds, head wounds, filling out a Tactical Combat Casualty Care Card, or DD Form 1380, burns and fractures.
At the end, students were broken into four groups and rotated through practice and evaluation stations.
The first station focused on airway maneuvers with a prosthetic head, while the second station focused on practicing stuffing wounds with hemostatic dressings and using pressure bandages on a prosthetic limb. At the third station, students properly applied a tourniquet on each other and moved to the last station after evaluation where they practiced checking for chest wounds and applying a pressure tourniquet and bandage to a leg wound.
All service members must complete the training within 12 months of deployment. The next TCCC training is scheduled for the February unit training assembly.