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Photo Information

U.S. Navy Seaman Jeremy Hernandez, a corpsman with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command, supervises a group of Jordanian soldiers as they carry a simulated casualty on a stretcher in the U.S. Central Command area of operations, Feb. 8, 2015. U.S. Marines and sailors guided Jordanian soldiers through four stations where they learned and practiced various combat life saver skills. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Carson A. Gramley/Released)

Photo by Cpl. Carson Gramley

Training to Save Lives

25 Mar 2015 | Cpl. Carson Gramley 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade

U.S. Marines and sailors with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command, trained Jordanian Armed Forces in medical care and combat life saver skills in the U.S. Central Command area of operations, Feb. 8, 2015.

The Marines and sailors taught the Jordanian soldiers various skills and held practical application assessments to gauge their retention of the knowledge.

U.S. Navy Seaman Justin Kunzer, a corpsman assigned to Company G, said they stuck to teaching the basics and used some of the methods they learned while in the Field Medical Training Battalion to teach the soldiers.

The corpsmen taught their students following an acronym. PMARCHP, which stands for patient movement, massive hemorrhaging, airway management, respiration, circulation, head and hypothermia, pain management and patient evacuation, outlines the recommended steps in treating a combat casualty.

“We’re going over massive hemorrhage, airways, respiration and circulation. We didn’t go over head and hypothermia because that’s a little more advanced,” said Kunzer.

In order to compensate for the language barrier, the Marines and corpsmen went through topics incrementally and used practical exercises to show, rather than tell, the soldiers the knowledge they wanted to convey.

The instructors said it was a challenge, but they feel the soldiers took the information seriously and applied it well.

“When we came out here they really didn’t know a lot about TCCC [Tactical Combat Casualty Care], so we had to teach it to them,” said Seaman Jeremy Hernandez, a corpsman assigned to Golf Company.

Hernandez said they’re working to give the JAF this training for a good reason.

“We’re trying to get them ready for what’s to come,” said Hernandez. “We want to get them more proficient in basic skills like patrolling and medical care so they can be ready to fight the enemy.”

Kunzer said that while this is good training to have, it can’t truly be useful unless they can apply it in a stressful situation. To test the soldiers’ resolve they had them do mock patrols and mass casualty situations that forced them to take action.

“I think the biggest challenge is the assessments,” said Kunzer. “They can do it sitting down, but when we’re in a [practice] patrol and guys start getting shot and people are running around, there’s confusion. It’s hard to try to be calm and take charge. I want them to be able to go through the assessment, think logically and be able to save each other’s lives.”

Overall, the corpsmen said they think their training has been effective and stuck with the soldiers.

“My expectations for them are pretty high because they’ve learned a lot and they’ve come really far in trying to obtain the knowledge that we do on a daily basis,” said Hernandez. “I’m feeling pretty confident for these guys.”

The corpsmen agreed that by the end of the training the Jordanian soldiers had reached the level of confidence and proficiency that they hoped for.


5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade