GAROUA, Cameroon – Soldiers stationed here provided emergency medical care to a casualty in a dark room, amid cries of pain, blaring alarms and red flashing lights.
The 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Soldiers from Task Force Darby supporting operations at Contingency Location Garoua, Cameroon, were completing the hands-on part of their combat lifesavers course Dec. 10.
Thirty Soldiers here have attended the 40 hour course which is taught over four days.
“The CLS course is given to train soldiers in important lifesaving skills and tasks they can use to possibly save their, or their battle buddies lives in a combat situation,” said Sgt. Clayton Young, TF Darby medic from Rochester, New York.
“Well trained and proficient CLS personnel can provide immediate care to save a casualties life,” said Young.
The medical training involves first learning the necessary academic knowledge. Next, soldiers are required to prove their grasp of that knowledge by taking a written and scenario based exam.
“In order for the students to earn their CLS course certification, the soldiers must show their proficiency in each intervention and task taught in the class, and pass a 40 question test,” said Young. “The last day of testing we also have the soldiers run through a trauma lane to solidify the knowledge they learned in the course and stress the importance of being proficient in these lifesaving tasks.”
According to Young, solders learn many interventions like the needle chest decompression to treat a collapsed lung and a nasal pharyngeal to open airways.
Spc. David Thomas, a 1-87 infantryman and native of Chicago, Illinois, said he enjoyed taking the live saving course.
“This CLS course was better than the courses I took in the past,” Thomas said. “There was a lot more hands on training. The class was entertaining. It wasn’t death by Powerpoint.”
Training CLS qualified soldiers is a priority of the medics from the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment.
“Classes are being planned for the future,” Young said. “It is our intent to have as many proficient CLS qualified personnel, as we can, trained.”
