YOKOTA AIR FORCE BASE, Japan -- You have three minutes until your wingman bleeds out. You’re exhausted, sirens are blaring in your ear and you don’t have a hospital at your disposal, only what’s in your backpack and the skills you learned from Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) training.
Over the course of three days, medics assigned to Yokota Air Base, Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Camp Zama Army Post, Japan, practiced in the classroom and in the field to complete the newly designed TCCC training, Aug. 19 - 21.
“Having these skills is imperative to managing traumas in a combat or field setting,” U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Demetrius Johnson, 374th Medical Operations Squadron primary care flight chief and lead TCCC instructor. “Teaching our medics how to control hemorrhages, help someone breathe better and evacuate them out is the most important thing we can do.”
The program consists of three phases, Care Under Fire, Tactical Field Care and Tactical Evacuation, each with their own set of specific procedures.
“I really enjoyed going through Care Under Fire and Tactical Field Care,” said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Marc Perez, medical readiness training unit hospital corpsman. “It was a very eye-opening experience that showed me where I need to improve. We medical professionals are consistently evolving and learning things.”
This training will better prepare medics for potential combat situations in an ongoing effort to heighten medical readiness and is crucial both at home and in deployed environments said Johnson.
Anyone in a combat environment could potentially need a medic who graduated TCCC training. That injured person could be you, your son or daughter, your spouse, your grandkid, or a friend.
“I myself am married to an active duty member” said Dominic Trujillo-Hobbs, 374th Medical Group simulation operator & TCCC coordinator. “So, when I do these types of trainings, I think about my husband and how he could be deployed with one of these medics. I want to make sure they are knowledgeable and able to take care of him correctly so he can come back home to me. That’s why it’s important to me, but it could be anyone’s loved one.”
The implementation of TCCC enhances readiness, battlefield capability and provides the tools and skills U.S. forces need to protect and defend the Indo-Pacific region said Johnson.
“When the call comes, I want these medics to be prepared,” said Johnson “With everything that is going on in the world we need to be ready at all times.”