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ARCENT opens TCCC training to Airmen

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Benjamin Ingold
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

Soldiers at U.S. Army Central opened their annual Tactical Casualty Combat Care training to Team Shaw Airmen Jan. 22, to improve interservice relations and teach life-saving skills from experienced Army Combat Medic Specialists.

“TCCC is just basic first aid on the battlefield,” said Army Staff Sgt. Taolee Gookool, ARCENT medical noncommissioned officer in charge. “We want everyone, not just Soldiers, to know these simple, life-saving interventions to make sure everyone makes it home from deployment.”

Department of Defense research shows the most common form of combat death is extreme hemorrhage. The TCCC course addresses this by making trainees apply a tourniquet and emphasizes tourniquet use throughout the course, combining its application with combat gauze, bandages and pressure dressing.

Gookool said tourniquets do not present a significant risk of limb loss until six hours post-application. U.S. Army Special Operations Command research into combat death shows that most wounded service members are in professional medical care well under six hour window.

Even though the skills taught at TCCC were developed for use in a combat environment, the lessons can be applied to non-combat medical situations.

“There can be serious medical emergencies on the flightline,” said Staff Sgt. Cheyenne Lanham, 55th Fighter Generation Squadron aerospace propulsion craftsman. “I wanted to take this training because if I know how to effectively respond to an emergency, I can be a lot more helpful.”

To graduate, participants form teams of two and simulate providing TCCC to ensure they possess the skills to effectively respond to a combat emergency. The exercise simulates a soldier being wounded and concludes with a practice 9-line evacuation radio call to a medical aircraft for the stabilized patient.

“These skills are very perishable,” said Gookool. “If you don’t get your hands on the equipment and practice these techniques you might struggle in an emergency.”

Team Shaw Airmen interested in taking TCCC should watch their email. Gookool coordinates with the 20th Force Support Squadron career assistance advisors when he has availability and maintains an open invitation to any Airmen wanting to gain TCCC skills.