Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [118]
As a Special Operations Combat Medic, I pledge my honor and conscience to my country and the Art of Medicine.
I recognize the responsibility that may be placed upon me for the health and the lives of others.
I confess the limitations of my skill and knowledge in caring for the sick and injured.
I promise to follow the maxim Primum mon non nocere—first do no harm, and to seek the assistance of more qualified medical authority whenever available.
Those confidences that come to me in my attendance of the sick, I will treat as secret.
I resolve to continue to sustain and improve my medical capabilities throughout my career as a Special Operations Combat Medic.
As a soldier/sailor/airman I will place all considerations of self below those of my team, my mission, and the cause of my country.
The Medical Training Center is a special and unique medical training facility—complete with state-of-the-art trauma simulators, operating rooms, a cadaver laboratory, and, like all medical schools, facilities for live-patient training. For the 18 Delta candidates, it’s twelve months or more of classroom study, medical field drill, and internships that will make them qualified paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and the finest combat medics in the world.
The first part of the 18 Delta training, or Special Forces Medical Sergeant Course, is the twenty-six-week Special Operations Combat Medic Course. Here they get classroom work in anatomy, physiology, pathology, patient assessment, and pharmacy training, as well as the basic classroom work that goes with EMT and paramedic qualification. The 18 Delta candidates perform clinical rotations in civilian hospitals and in civilian emergency and trauma centers. They also ride in civilian ambulances to work with emergency medical service paramedics on 911 calls. These clinical rotations and paramedic excursions have taken place at medical facilities in St. Petersburg, Tampa, Jacksonville, Richmond, and other civilian clinics. Before they graduate from the combat medic course, the 18 Delta candidates will have worked to save lives in actual trauma conditions and assisted in at least one birthing. But these soldiers are training to be more than EMTs and paramedics. They must be warriors and healers, sometimes both at the same time. One unique exercise during the course is the trauma-lanes training at the Medical Training Center. I’ve experienced some realistic military training, but nothing as intense or as well choreographed as the trauma-lanes training of the 18 Delta course.
“This introduces the student medics to working in a tactical environment,” Chief Tony Balestra tells me. Balestra is a Navy SEAL chief petty officer and the senior Navy medical corpsman assigned to the school. He’s a graduate of the 18 Delta medical training and rated as a Navy independent-duty corpsman. Chief Balestra escorts me to a wooded area behind the school but still within the perimeter of the facility grounds. The Medical Training Center is considered a secure facility, and visitors like myself have to be with an escort. Along a strip of grass near the woods is a series of army tents that are equipped as field infirmaries. These treatment facilities mirror what a Special Forces medic may have at a guerrilla base or a firebase in Afghanistan. There’s a treatment table inside each along with the associated trauma equipment found in a mobile field hospital. It’s like we’re on the set of the M*A*S*H TV series.
“The students work in training units of five students and one instructor under simulated combat conditions,” Balestra explains. “One is the primary student medic, one the patient, and the other three are squad members who can observe the treatment. The medic will have his aid bag, which he has packed and prepared for this exercise. With the exception of the wounded man, they’re all in combat gear with load-bearing vests, extra magazines, weapons, and helmets.” At the edge of the woods, Chief Balestra turns me over to a staff instructor and his student training unit. They’re about to begin