"Are you gonna let your buddy die?!?"

Soldiers from the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School practice evacuating a casualty during a training exercise at Fort Bragg’s Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center April 19. The JSOMTC conducts the intensive medical portion of Special Forces Medical Sergeant training. (U.S. Army photo by Gillian M. Albro, USASOC PAO)

I may have mentioned this fact in this blog before, but I'm not sure and I'm not going to look it up...

I went through the first 20 weeks of the Special Forces Medic course. I hated it. I had (and still don't) absolutely no desire to become a Medic and I tried hard to hide it. Why? Well, my choices at the time were try to become a SF Medic or go back where I came from. I wasn't ready to go back so I tried, not as hard as I could have, admittedly, but harder than I wanted to. Don't get me wrong, I love Medics. Those guys are miracle workers and deserve as much praise and respect as I can give. I just didn't want to be one.

Anyway, the hardest part of the course, in my opinion, was the second and third Trauma Clinics. At that time (1991, not sure if they have changed or not) there were three Trauma Clinics. The first one was a field clinic in which you (as the Medic!) and a helper (affectionately know as "Haji") happened across a Soldier needing medical assistance. Of course there were a variety of injuries and the key was to know how do deal with anything. There is a step-by-step assessment that identifies the most critical problems first and worked down to minor or non-critical problems. You had 30 minutes to stabilize the patient and move him to a casualty collection point. I actually did very well on this clinic, I think I got 48 out of 50 points.

Trauma Clinic Two was conducted in a clinical setting. That is, you had a clinic set up with all the medical supplies and tools available and a wounded Soldier was brought to you with minimal first aid treatment from the field. The idea was to stabilize the patient for follow-on treatment (such as surgery or intensive care). There was a time limit here, too, but I don't remember what it was. I totally tanked this clinic. I had a burn patient and just blew it. This began my downward spiral out of the course.

I should have been asked to leave at this point. There was no retest on the Trauma Clinics but I was allowed to continue despite being boarded twice more for failing tests. I wasn't allowed to leave (and of course I refused to quit) so I made it to Trauma Three.

Conducted as a field training exercise (FTX), Trauma Clinic Three consisted of both of the previous Trauma Clinics with more realism. This means that the instructors were able to better simulate the injuries and also add a "combat" atmosphere with the use of grenade simulators and smoke grenades.

The pressure was extremely high. I blew phase one. My patient died. I wanted to die also. It was very humiliating, but I really didn't belong there. I blew phase two, but not as bad as phase two. My patient didn't die, but almost. Ugh!

Thankfully, the commandant of that phase of the SF Medic course took pity upon me. In the board that followed, the first sergeant and the course NCOIC wanted to send me back to the Infantry, but the major asked me, "what would you like to do?" "Sir, I'd appreciate the opportunity to be reclassed." "So, you want to be a weapons sergeant? Just a grunt at heart, huh?" "Yes, Sir!"

So, I was off to the 18B course. Passed. Rest is history.

I still cringe when I see pictures like the one above.