Two thousand troops conducting medical training at Fort Hunter Liggett
A simulated war zone erupted on the Central Coast on Thursday at Fort Hunter Liggett, where about 2,000 military personnel are going through the worst in the battlefield through training.
The training is part of the Global Medic Exercises, where combat medics and nurses learn how to stay cool under pressure and know what to expect if they are deployed.
“Even though all the chaos, you’re wearing that hot mask… you have to be able to communicate properly to each other,” said Specialist Consuelo Castillo, a combat medic in the US Army Reserve.
These mass casualty training exercises allow hundreds of doctors, nurses and combat medics to train with each other as well.
“It gives them an idea on how to work triage, how to bring our patients in, what other things out there that can be a danger to us,” said Captain Rebecca Rosales, the officer-in-charge of the EMT Section.
A shockingly real scene played out during the exercises, with fake shrapnel sticking out of a soldier’s legs, fake blood splashed over a body and downed soldiers wheezing after a chemical attack.
“Make sure you don’t lose that focus of all the outside noise, but also still be able to save the soldier that’s in front of you,” said Castillo.
Inside the tents, you find all the basics of a civilian hospital, including CT scanners, radiographic equipment and blood banks.
There is an operating room within the 228th Combat Support Hospital of the Army Reserve where medical teams treat soldiers who have been badly wounded in the field in a room that is fully equipped as any hospital.
“We’re not just the damage control surgery area, we’re actually more the definitive care as patients arrive to us. So we get the worst of the worst,” said Colonel Mark Miller, the deputy commander of Clinical Services.
Training like this prepares these soldiers mentally and physically for what is to come if they are sent overseas to a war zone.
“Bringing all these teams together gives us the opportunity to… learn something new every day,” said Castillo.
