Posted on Mar 31, 2015
Simulated Wounds For Training Purposes. AKA "Casualty Cards." Share Your "Casualty" Experiences.
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29 Palms, NTC, JRTC, basic or boot. Our beloved OC's (observer/controllers) handed everyone their casualty cards in that sealed brown envelope in case our MILES gear went off. Many a prayer was said for receiving the lottery ticket: RTD (return to duty). Sometimes, things don't go the way we had hoped. Do you have any "medevac" horror stories to share?
Edited 10 y ago
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 8
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My worst experience was in 1990 in Hohensfels. I was gone about 3 or 4 full days in the dead of winter. I never huddled up next to so many perfect strangers in my life. They had real world cold weather casualties as well. I'll never forget one poor guy that was screaming in pain when his frozen foot started to thaw out. I was a no TIS/TIG snot nosed grunt and learned about staying warm during that one winter. Those painful lessons were hard learned and have been shared with hundreds of troops over a 20 year period. I bet that poor guy lost his foot.
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SFC Mark Merino
Small world, I was Hero of Hohenfels #106 in 1992. Do they still have all the entries of the awardees in the.......snack bar? It's been a loooong time since then.
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SFC Mark Merino Sweet! Yea Operation Omega Lightning (JRTC-94-6) April 1994 (actually was hero of the battlefield). I had a KIA, and got tagged by the OC, The OC gave me a RTD because I escaped and evaded for 12 hours. He could find my Stinger Team and said it was high speed. So I never died !! Hoohaaaa.
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SFC Mark Merino
I'd expect nothing less from you SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL ! High Speed; Lowest of Drag!
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SFC Collin McMillion
Need to clarify, lost someone very close to me in 68, so very shortly after I went with what I can only refer to as "misplaced revenge". I found out quickly it was not a schoolyard or backyard fight, but a tough, dangerous, sickening place to be where every minute of every day was a matter of survival, not a place to play hero and avenge the loss of a loved one. All I thought I knew and all I had been taught still was not nearly enough to prepare me for reality. My medical training didn't scratch the surface of what I had to do. All the simulations we practiced and alerts we did were not even close to the first firefight and the aftermath. My 39 months there, in the endgame meant nothing. I commented on the injury and evacuation card only because I remember them all to we'll and know that troops don't take them nearly as seriously as they should. Of all the things I have done, saving a single life will still be at the top of my list of lifetime accomplishments of which I'm proud.
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My "casualty card" experience was more so a CBRNE exercise done in conjunction with Denver while I was stationed at Buckley AFB.
We were on casual status (awaiting our TS//SCI clearance adjudication), so we were picked up as fodder for a number of things ranging from gate guard duty to certain base details. All was in the interest of keeping us all "gainfully employed".
I just remember it was sunny but breezy and cold... And we had to go through the entire decon experience, which included being hosed down while in uniform. Suffice it to say, it was not a particularly enjoyable experience.
We were on casual status (awaiting our TS//SCI clearance adjudication), so we were picked up as fodder for a number of things ranging from gate guard duty to certain base details. All was in the interest of keeping us all "gainfully employed".
I just remember it was sunny but breezy and cold... And we had to go through the entire decon experience, which included being hosed down while in uniform. Suffice it to say, it was not a particularly enjoyable experience.
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SFC Mark Merino
Yeah, that sucks. No matter what kind of gear you wear, you are soaking wet after being under the Bradley cleaning the inside rad wheels. I was FROZEN! I put on my protective mask and got behind an M-1 Abrams' turbine (as close as I could) to keep from being a cold weather injury. I ended up buying a new wet weather top and bottom. But I was HOT in the dead of a German winter!
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Oh man, I spent many cold days and nights in the P-HA doing KP, moving rocks, and many other menial tasks waiting for my unit to "regenerate" me. I think I lost my "spooning" virginity in the P-HA.
They let you grab a bag if possible now so you have at least a woobie and personal hygiene stuff. Army has gotten soft lol.
They let you grab a bag if possible now so you have at least a woobie and personal hygiene stuff. Army has gotten soft lol.
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SFC Mark Merino
I learned my lesson. I keep a survival (space) blanket in my left cargo pocket and a ziplocked bag of 2pr socks in my right. 1/4 roll of a$$-wipe in a plastic bag and emergency pack of smokes and lighter filled out the blouse. That way if canmake it through any field problem and look like a pro. Now, it's porta potties at every location. The Army has definitely gone from harder to smarter. I'd like to see how the training has evolved at Sand Hill after 25 years?
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When I was in PLDC I was the leading our platoon on a mission to secure a downed helicopter. I took my command team to the helicopter itself to assess the damage and see what was going on while I had the rest of the platoon set up a 360 perimeter to secure the area. All of a sudden op for comes screaming out of the woods on the right flank. I turn and start yelling at squad leaders to get their squads online and return fire. Next thing I know I hear gun shots behind me. I turn around expecting to be attacked from the other side and realize it is the other half of my perimeter shooting THROUGH our perimeter towards the other side. As I stand there screaming cease-fire and waving the hand-and-arm signal my MILES goes off. I go down, say I'm hit and pull my casualty card. I have been shot in the groin and my medic is a female who I had pissed off earlier in the course by calling inappropriate cadences. As the others start coming towards me I am "saved" by my SGL (who I had also pissed off but that is another story) throwing a smoke grenade at me. Unfortunately for him he skipped it off a rock and into my face, creating an actual casualty when it split my cheek open under my eye. We repelled the attack, the medic patched me up and an unspoken deal was made between the SGL and I that I no longer had to participate.
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SFC Mark Merino
NEVER piss off the medics! Grandpa shared thse words of WWII wisdom on me as a child. "Never piss off the people who feed you, who pay you, heal you, or bring you ammo".
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SGT James Elphick
Haha SFC Mark Merino I would never piss off my unit medics but I thought I was safe in PLDC. Lesson learned!
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SFC Mark Merino
Agreed! PLDC was great when it was a month long. At the time it seemed to go on forever and could have been knocked out in 1/2 that time. Looking back, it was smart. As a CPL grunt, with no exposure to the rest of the Army, it was a real eye opener of the other branches. It was our first look at the "big Army picture" as young soldiers.
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I recently made these to train some of our Arabic brothers. They pretty much worked horribly. Sometimes they worked but the ones we were training didn't understand it. The cards were made with English on one side and Arabic on the other. One of the best ones was one of the soldiers telling me that the didn't want it said. I am not sure if he was really that (something not nice going here) or he was trying to game it. I did hand one to an officer and he just walked away. It was a kill card. He didn't want to play games. I really hope they do well if they go to war. That is about all they got going for them.
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CPT (Join to see)
SPC Patrick Gearardo I was actually thinking about making that. But for sake of our international partnership I didn't. Now that I have seen how it went I will be producing some.
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SPC Patrick Gearardo
I meant for all the people in the U.S. that seem to get their butts hurt over the smallest of things now-a-days. ;) They suffer from butt-hurt syndrome.
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CPT (Join to see)
To all of the lovely, overly sensitive, easily butthurt people! Check out my 2nd Channel for bloopers/behind-the-scenes and vlogs: http://www.youtube.com/hig...
SPC Patrick Gearardo This is for you.
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SPC Patrick Gearardo
Hahaa....sorry, but nothing is showing here. It says 'Internet Explorer cannot display...blah blah..' Work internet....then SniperHill is even worse. I'll try to check it out when I go on R&R in a few weeks.
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I was blinded and had no use of my legs. I was to start out as unconscious but shortly into being treated I was to wake up and panic. Being blind I had no idea who was treating me and immediately attacked the person putting the tourniquet on one of my legs. I screamed at them attempted to crawl away and attacked them at every opportunity until they held me down and tried to calm me.
The purpose was to show that not every patient is going to willingly let you work on them, I think it was so the Drill Sergeants could get a laugh. It was fun though.
The purpose was to show that not every patient is going to willingly let you work on them, I think it was so the Drill Sergeants could get a laugh. It was fun though.
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