Reserve/active duty team up to instruct Tactical Combat Casualty Care Published Nov. 25, 2016 By TSgt. Peter Dean MacDill Air Force Base, Fla -- A battlefield-wounded U.S. serviceman has a 98 percent survival rate once in the hands of an aeromedical evacuation squadron crew. However, battlefield medical care starts well before then with a Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) team, and many times while under enemy fire.Although 98 percent is near perfect, near perfect is not good enough when you have a fellow Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine in need of lifesaving battlefield treatment. Certified TCCC instructors from the Air Force Reserve’s 927th Air Refueling Wing and the active duty 6th Air Mobility Wing here facilitated a three-day joint TCCC course Nov. 16-18. “Statistics show on the battlefield, the pre-hospital period is the most important time to care for any combat casualty,” said James Norbech, 6th AMW Medical Programs chief and lead TCCC instructor “In previous wars, up to 90 percent of combat deaths occurred before a casualty reached a medical treatment facility.”TCCC is not designed to train battlefield warriors as full-up medics, but to provide them the necessary skills to suppress hostile fire, move casualties to a safe location and provide treatment of life-threatening conditions. “It has been well documented that since T-triple C has been introduced to our armed services our died of wounds rate has drop dramatically. We currently have some Army units that have an almost zero died of wounds rate due to the procedures and guidelines of T-triple C,” said Norbech. The three-part course included textbook, hands-on medical training and on the final day, a realistic IED scenario designed to test the trainee’s reaction under pressure. In the final scenario trainees had to perform TCCC on mannequins while under intense paintball fire from the opposition force. “Although books and hands-on training are great, we have to put their split-second decision-making skills to the test,” said Master Sgt. Brad Clark, 927th Aeromedical Staging Squadron TCCC instructor. “The first phase of the course is called care under fire; it’s the immediate care needed while you are actually under enemy fire. That’s something that every individual who deploys needs to know. If they find themselves in that situation, they’ll know how to respond. A good phrase is ‘stress inoculation.’”The instructor team, much like the students, are pulled from all branches of the U.S military with many having not only the training, but also possessing real world experience.“The majority of our instructors have ‘walked the walk.’ I’m a 22-year Army combat medic veteran, with multiple tours in Iraq,” said Norbech. “Master Sgt. Clark was also an Army combat medic attached to an infantry unit with tours in Iraq. We capitalize on the vast experience throughout the entire local military community, bringing in the folks who can provide the best training possible.” The delivery method is just as important as the message, for instance, for hard drive/thumb drive usage, computer based training is adequate, Green Dot training is best suited for a classroom style training venue, but for life-saving training technics, hands on is the best option. “The stress was there, we were being shot at, the mannequins were bleeding, people were yelling from all directions, it was stressful,” said Army Specialist Xuan Nguyen, Special Operations Command communications operator. “Under stress you don’t know how you’re going to react, you don’t know how your teammate is going to react, you don’t know if they/we are going to panic or just stand there. This was great training, even though the training was just a few days, we retained it. We did good.”TCCC training does not stop once the bleeding has subsided. Medical evacuation is also needed once the area is deemed safe. A nine-line report must be completed, providing the next line of medical care all the necessary information. “With our high deployment rate, I now feel prepared to protect myself and my fellow brothers and sisters and ensure we all come home,” said Nguyen.