Bleeding Excellence: B Squadron does Combat First Aid

By MCpl Ryan Chase

For the first time in years, nearly since the end of the war in Afghanistan, the Regiment ran a Combat First Aid course from 16 to 22 June, and it went very well.  The course was part of B Squadron’s preparation for High Readiness for TF 1-15, and will increase the number of instructors available to 1 CMBG for further courses to qualify soldiers for their Road to High Readiness training.  The course was instructed by Sgt Chuback, MCpl Burke, MCpl Clegg, MCpl Loft, MCpl Chase, MCpl Popoff, Cpl Larcher-Pelland, and Cpl Gordon; we were also given instruction during the first two days by Cpl Darling of 3 PPCLI.

Everything started off in the classroom, going over various presentations and covering topics such as how to stop a massive bleed of a limb, to treating someone with a gunshot wound to the chest.  Once the students had finished the classroom portion, they moved out to the urban operations mock-up village and conducted the practical portion of the training.  This included running through various scenarios such as clearing an IED factory, conducting presence patrols, and coming to the aid of UN workers in a humanitarian crisis.  The scenarios put pressure on the students, forcing them to react to a rapidly changing dangerous situation, and learn how to deal with imminent threats while protecting those injured from death, and removing the injured from the conflict once it had been resolved in order to properly treat and extract them.  Most students performed well.  Many of our soldiers were new and less experienced, and they needed some close guidance to learn the new roles and skills which they had not been exposed to in the past.  It was certainly an eye opening and amazing experiences for several of them.  

This was a great opportunity for the Squadron and the Regiment, reminding us why we are here and what we may be called upon to do at a moment’s notice.  In the future I look forward to us conducting this course again, and conducting other combat related training, to keep us current on our skills and maintain our focus where it needs to be.