OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (Sept. 14, 2015) — Medical Soldiers, assigned to 6th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, spent their week alongside Soldiers, from 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, as they prepare to compete for the coveted Expert Field Medical Badge, or EFMB, in the next couple months.
Several medics from across the peninsula will gather to compete for the EFMB in a semiannual evaluation that sports an attrition rate of nearly 80 percent Army-wide.
“You’ve definitely got to bring your “A” game to the EFMB, it’s no joke,” said Capt. Jeffrey Brown, 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade surgeon. “You’ve got to know the craft of medical response in any number of situations and on top of that you’ve got to know how to Soldier through all of it.”
The focus of the train-up, with support from the Ranger battalion, was to identify tactics commonly used to provide casualty care on the battlefield, said Brown.
Soldiers of 6-52 Air Defense Artillery created nine-line medical evacuation reports based on a training scenario, established a landing zone for MEDEVAC aircraft and loaded their simulated patients into an air ambulance.
“The training was incredibly realistic thanks to the support we received from the Ranger battalion and MEDEVAC team,” said 2nd Lt. Austin Harris, a medical platoon leader assigned to 6-52 Air Defense Artillery. “It was easy to see how battlefield stressors play a role in medical evacuations.”
“It was also a great introduction into the world of special operations for our medics so they could observe firsthand how another unit approaches saving lives in an emergency situation,” Harris said. “And at the end of the day, that’s what we want to know; our medics have trained to do their best to mitigate suffering and make sure that our battle buddies receive the best medical care we can offer.”