Soldiers in this environment need to be prepared to deploy immediately upon arriving at their unit. While the medical information learned in this portion of training is important, oversight from more noncommissioned officers (NCOs) would be beneficial. Current TrainingĬurrently, 68W AIT is held at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, with the first seven weeks dedicated to mastering the skills to pass the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) written exam and skills test to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) (Pennsylvania National Guard, n.d.). Bryan Gatchell claims in his 2018 Army.mil article, that OSUT training “bolsters readiness, lethality, and proficiency.” (para. They can focus on building new Soldiers’ strength, endurance, and MOS-specific skills right from the beginning, ensuring that everything taught will guide the new Soldiers towards not only graduating, but also being proficient at their job once they arrive to their unit. BenefitsĪ benefit of using the OSUT method is that the drill sergeants, also 68Ws, would be able to spend more time on teaching the necessary basic life-saving skills as well as physical fitness and discipline on top of Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills that are learned at Initial Entry Training. ![]() And because of the medic’s intimate relationship with combat, and because current 68Ws are not currently trained to provide care to patients beyond just their initial transport to a medical facility (Gallagher, 2018), a shift to an OSUT POI would improve the training and provide better care to patients and Soldiers in operational environments. It has a rich history of combat operations with medics being awarded many medals of valor for bravery under fire (Congressional Medal of Honor Society, n.d.). The 68W Combat Medic Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) is the second largest in the Army. Brito’s remarks apply to Army infantrymen, but can also apply to Army medics. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, said “If you want to get really good at something, you’ve got to practice it a lot, whether it be sports or training for combat” (Vergun, 2018, para. The paratroopers rehearsed medical evacuation procedures including using the helicopter’s hoist system. Army Alaska, wait for a UH-60 medical-evacuation helicopter to land during training at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Feb. Paratroopers with 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment (Airborne), 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. With the Army’s focus on streamlining training, it raises a suggestion to improve the 68W Combat Medic course and transform it into a One Station Unit Training (OSUT) style Program of Instruction (POI). ![]() 1) in order to improve the emergency care medical capabilities of every service member. Drill sergeants are back at Advanced Individual Training (AIT)(Arden, 2018) and the Army is establishing a “standardized combat casualty care instruction for all service members” (Department of Defense, 2018, p. 6).Īs a result, the Army has implemented both the Occupational Physical Assessment for recruits (Kimmons, 2018), and the Army Combat Fitness Test for Soldiers (Army Combat Fitness Test, n.d.). According to Todd South in his Army Times article (2018), these new developments will lead to “mitigating injury and interventions to increase resilience and longevity of the soldier and squad” (para. This has led to significant changes throughout the Army to include testing and implementing new ways to measure and improve physical requirements throughout the force. Today’s Army focuses on readiness, to include physical fitness, discipline, and medical proficiency. 16, 2018, in Kenya, Africa, as part of Operation Askari Storm. ![]() Paratroopers with 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, provide emergency medical care to a simulated casualty during a live-fire exercise alongside British paratroopers, Nov.
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