PFC is the next step after TCCC in the patient treatment process. What makes Special Operations Combat Medics unique is their ability and requirement to be able to treat trauma patients for extended periods of time. There is a major difference between treating a trauma patient that receives a MEDEVAC almost immediately versus a patient that medics have to sit on for days on end while waiting for evacuation. This scenario is not uncommon, based on some of the austere environments in which Special Operations members are expected to operate.
What’s Included in the NSW Medic Course?
Leading Chief Petty Officer of the TMC, Dave Dillehay, explained that NSW medics are not just medics, they may also be assigned the roles of breacher, sniper, or comms guy. In fact, it’s extremely unusual for any NSW operator to only have the role of medic. Often, the medic role comes second after their primary responsibility.
Dillehay went on to say in reference to the course, “This week is protected time specifically focused on combat trauma without the distractions of other roles and responsibilities. The training via NSWG-1 puts the combat medics and IDCs in direct contact with a subject matter expert in combat trauma medicine by utilizing the extensive resources of NMCSD.”
The first three days of the course are filled with presentations presented by trauma subject matter experts. Such experts include trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, emergency medicine doctors, and anesthesia experts, to name a few. In addition, medics spend time working on their TCCC and PFC skills by training with simulators and cadavers.
The fourth day is the capstone, conducted at Strategic Operations in San Diego. TMC Tactical Medical Lead, Special Operator 1st Class Noel Sons, explained that “The capstone event provides simulated environments in order to fully immerse the students and allow them to use the skills and training received throughout the course. Environments range from naval vessels and a crashed helicopter to a medical trauma center. Realism is added with explosions, sounds of gun fire, and role-players that utilize prosthetics and fake blood to simulate realistic combat injuries.”
The final day of the week-long training block addresses controlled substance inventories, authorized medical allowance refresher, and ultrasound.
This is Merely the Beginning for Corpsmen
Cmdr. Kitchen fully believes in the program and explains that this is only the beginning. In the future, the program will be more comprehensive and will include training blocks in Special Operations dive medicine, blood transfusion, and combat casualty training embedded during different pre-deployment training exercises.
Kitchen said, “At a time when training is being cancelled or becoming untenable due to restriction of movement requirements, we are able to produce an extremely high quality, locally sourced product thereby reducing the risk of COVID-19 and the associated ROM requirements for course attendees.”
Historically, in NSW, medical training had been lacking at the team level. Boat Detachments and Platoons have been so busy participating in other training blocks in preparation for deployment that medical training sometimes went to the wayside. It would only become a priority when a real-world medical event arose, requiring a medic to take action.
This certainly wasn’t always the case: sometimes private Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) companies were contracted to provide training to SEALs and SWCCs, but that came with a steep price tag. The other source of medical training was for medics at the team level to conduct their own training with the members of their unit. While all training is good training, individual medics don’t have the same resources as well-equipped medical training programs.
Therefore, the news of this new course is exciting. And having been an NSW medic I can tell you that it is also well-deserved. Almost any Special Operations medic you meet has a deep passion and interest in combat medicine. They always want to learn more and keep their skills sharp. A common shortcoming of the NSW community has been the lack of specialized and in-depth medical training. No doubt this program will make for much better NSW medics, and will hopefully set the precedence to allow for even more combat trauma training in the future.
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