Student Review: Combat Lifesaver (TC3) 20 June: Rob

Posted over at his forum HERE

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Going to be a three-four post series covering a couple classes that Max offers. This one is about the half day medical class given usually the day before a CRCD class.

First and foremost a couple general tidbits.

I came up I-81 to Winchester, VA and then went over via Route 50. I’m a flat lander. Once you get a few miles out of Winchester it’s those crazy winding Flintstones type hills the rest of the way. I left on a Wednesday after work, overnighted in South Khakilackee and finished the drive Thursday. I did this specifically so I would arrive in daytime. I’m glad I did. There is also about nothing between Winchester and the rest of the way. Make sure your gassed up. Cover your bases and if you need lunches for the class, water, pogue bait type stuff, get it at the Walmart there in Winchester. There is a CVS, Food Lion and other stores in that other town, but the closest Walmart is in Winchester.

Get in the day before your class starts and be 100% sure you get a good night’s rest. Especially if you are doing one of these TC3/RMP/NODF combo classes on Friday. I awoke at 5am, had to be at the Rally at 6am and finally laid my head back down at the motel at 12:45 pm Sat morning. Getting a good night of rest is CRUCIAL. Every one of the three that camped out during the class were heard at one point in time lamenting not staying at a motel. Motels- the “Koolwink” is probably 5 minutes closer than the Southbranch but the Southbranch looked a little newer. Both seemed equivalent to a Days Inn.

The Med class-

Max will start everything on time, it’s that military mindset. I appreciate that. I train a lot of places and often times statements like “we will be on the range ready to go at 9am” turn into “let’s have coffee and BS about stupid gun talk for an hour starting at 9am”. You won’t experience that with Max. You WILL get every single minute training value. I appreciate that no BS approach. You will be tired at the end of the day, but at least you won’t be looking back at the end of the day thinking “what the hell did we do between 9 and 11?”

Like all current tactical medicine thinking, the class focuses around use of tourniquets, control of massive bleeding, airway, respiration- including needle decompression, chest seals, etc. shock and hypothermia. Essentially the new MARCH acronym.

When I began seeing the newer tourniquet use protocols over a decade ago, my first question was- “OK from a survival standpoint, what about AFTER that?” My concern was one anyone who had worked on plumbing would have had. When the “pressure” is put back on, what’s to stop the clot from blowing, or the wound to start flowing again? Different schools simply did the “leave the TQ on and let someone else worry about that” answer. I sought about seeking an answer to this because simply leaving the TQ on forever isn’t an option for a survival medicine situation.

Max covered that in a section about “tourniquet reduction” and honestly in commercially available classes like this, that is the first time I’ve seen that covered. Bravo.

Due to the short time constraints on the class the amount of hands on practice was limited, however quite a bit of it was done including TQ usage, some simple drags and some simulated walk thrus involving a team coming under contact and receiving a casualty.

Overall an awesome class. I’m looking forward to Max making the class an entire day with more thrown in. I will probably attend again then, despite the 13 hour drive.

Great “day trip” class for those only able to train for the day or so.

Rob

P.S. Rob runs JRH Enterprises which is a great resource for night vision technology, gear, and a whole bunch of prepper stuff.