Today we had a lecture about burn-out in health-care providers (which kinda made us laugh, so that should tell you what we thought about it) before loading up with our gear again and heading back to the five-ton to go to the field for almost an entire day of activities.
We started with learning procedures for guarding a convoy under attack and how to take care of our casualties when under fire while still protecting the convoy. Since I'm somehow a squad leader, I had the fun and exciting job of yelling orders and commands and radioing in for evacuations and all that stuff. Quite interesting. I think we all ended up dead.
Our next activity was a litter obstacle course. We loaded up a litter with a “casualty” (dummy) and had to navigate through this course in the woods. Somehow, my squad ended up with the heavy dummy, and first squad had the light one, and we still beat them to the end (because we're awesome... and we have more tall, strong guys than they do). I wasn't a litter carrier (thankfully); instead, I was providing security from the front and shouting commands behind me. And let me tell you, low-crawling with kevlar and a flak vest and my BCGs (pretty much indestructible combat glasses) is not easy. As I said when I was about halfway through that step, “They don't teach this in medical school!”
The next thing we did was march toward the next station (full gear, weapons at the ready, watching for enemy activity), when we came under chemical attack. That meant that I had nine seconds to take off my kevlar and my BCGs, pull out my gas mask, and get a good seal. And then they told us to get into full MOPP gear (and don't ask me what that stands for, because I don't know), which is eight minutes for the full suit, boot, and gloves, which is definitely not easy with a gas mask on. I have prescription inserts for my mask, which supposedly means I can still see with it, but the prescription was wrong, so they let me take off the mask and put my glasses back on and continue the march without it (but still in the other chemical gear). It felt really good to take that stuff on, but even in that short walk, I sweated completely through my uniform, so I was soaked for the next hour or so.
We played with the simulation dummies for awhile, pretending to be working at a level 2 battalion aid station of a FOB (forward operating base) that had come under attack. That was fun and all (and it was good to be doing something doctor-ish, instead of pretending to be medics), but it was definitely not easy with kevlar and flak vests. However, I did successfully intubate every dummy I tried to intubate, so I considered that a success.
The next station was learning how to do chemical decontamination, which wasn't really all that exciting, and then we had another road march, during which we came under attack. This time it was just people with explosives and guns, no chemical warfare, but it was still pretty hectic, and I think we killed our three casualties. I got really beat up from all the times we had to drop to the ground (which was very rocky), and my legs got so tired from hauling myself up with all that gear that I couldn't really do it anymore. I started using the butt of my M-16 as a crutch to get up, which we're really not supposed to do (but whatever). Our instructors decided that we did such a good job at that one that we could go back to camp early (the next platoon came in about an hour after we did). All around, a much better day than yesterday. They actually treated us like adults, not basic trainees. It was a nice change.
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