VIDEOS: Battle Inoculation: CQB & CASEVAC
In my previous post ‘Mental Preparation for Combat’ I stress the need to training and mental preparation for combat. When I teach combat lifesaver (TC3) I stress how hard it is to evacuate a casualty. Today I am going to post some video clips from YouTube that I hope will help make this point.
The essential need for:
Effective Training, including: Battle Inoculation & Stress training
Physical & Mental Preparation
These videos are from Helmand Province, a place where I spent a couple of years. The place varies from wide open flat or mountainous desert, to close country in the’green zone’ around the Helmand river. The former lends itself to mobility operations and long range engagements. The later is a night mare of compounds, irrigation ditches, crop fields and vegetation. Hence ‘green zone.’
I’m going to put a couple of intro videos up and then get to the heart of the matter with the third video:
1) Despite the advertising, this is not the SAS. It’s a unit of British Infantry. The video gives you an idea of a close engagement in the green zone. Taliban in the ditch. Its nit high quality, but at the end you see the dead enemy in the water.
(Note: The clip above is of the Platoon Sergeant in the third clip below. It shows it towards the end).
2) This is a short video showing how quickly it can happen. Shot to the face. I don’t know the back story, it could be a ricochet or even a bit of rock that hit him. I think that towards the end of the video, after the initial shock, he realizes that he is not that badly wounded, and gets back on the gun:
3) This last video is the nub of it. It’s a long one. There is nothing cool about this video. It is raw footage of a raw unit of British Infantry coming under fire in close country, taking casualties, and trying to evacuate them. Note the Platoon Sergeant yelling himself raw trying to motivate the young soldiers, who are acting as if in a daze. Don’t armchair quarterback it – instead, ask if you and your small team would do any better? Perhaps worse?
Chaos & Tragedy.
Watch at least from 19:00 where the action starts through to 60:00 which includes some lessons learned:
TRAIN.
Realistic Training!
Live Hard.
Die Free.
Max