Navy Corpsman from Abbeville shares knowledge with Afghan medics

KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. Navy Corpsman with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Two-Eight (NMCB 28) from Barksdale Air Force Base, La. assigned to Joint Task Force Sapper’s Engineering Brigade Advise and Assist Team (EBAAT) began training medics from the Afghan National Army’s (ANA)
By Barry Wood, Navy Chief Petty Officer

National Engineering Brigade (NEB) in January 2014.
While many of the ANA medics had been through some classroom training before, the Navy corpsman brought real hands-on training, application, and exercises in an expeditionary environment. The results over the next eight weeks were outstanding.
The training curriculum included a Combat Life Saver course, as well as familiarizing them with every day “sick call” medicine. The skills they learned are critical during this time when the ANA is now in the lead over the security of their country.
Hospital corpsman 1st Class Corey Broussard, who is a fireman from Abbeville, remarked about the experience, “When we asked for volunteers for anything, hands shot up, always eager to learn.”
Broussard continued in his distinctive Cajun accent, “They had never had any hands-on experience and I’m a hand’s-on guy. They had heard about this stuff in a classroom but never put it into practice, and that’s what we do.”
“We began by teaching life-saving techniques such as tourniquets, battle dressings and advanced to casualty care and airway adjuncts,” described Hospital corpsman 1st Class Carolina Bornstein, an Independent Duty Corpsman (IDC) and lead instructor, on the first few weeks of training.
“The eagerness of the medics to volunteer for procedures was one of the highlights as we performed nasopharyngeal airway operations,” said Bornstein. “I looked forward to going out to the training site because I knew we had a group of motivated medics that wanted to learn.”
Hospital corpsman 2nd Class Isa Lee was also impressed, and explained the ANA’s dedication, “to be able to teach those less fortunate than us, with poor living conditions, and for them to be so eager to participate was a great experience.”
Capitalizing on the enthusiasm, the ANA medics began learning how to perform minor medical procedures to include intravenous access with administration of fluids, intramuscular and subcutaneous injections, suturing, incision and drainage with packing, and splinting or immobilizing a joint to provide stability.
The EBAAT corpsmen finished the training by teaching the ANA the fundamentals of sick call, an incredibly important task in a region where access to medical care is remote at
best.
Hospital corpsman 1st Class Corey Broussard remarked about the experience, “When
we asked for volunteers for anything, hands shot up, always eager to learn.”
Broussard continued in his distinctive Cajun accent, “They had never had any hands-on experience and I’m a hand’s-on guy. They had heard about this stuff in a classroom but never put it into practice, and that’s what we do.”
The feedback received from the students was always positive and the effect of this training has the potential to be felt well beyond the battlefield.
Chief hospital corpsman Justin Davies, NMCB 28’s Medical OIC, said, “One student told us after working with our instructors that he realized the importance of an education and was sending his teenage son to back to school, who had recently quit to take a job. The students are clearly not the only ones who have benefited from the training.”
Bornstein summed up the feelings of all the instructors, “As the trainers we have had the honor and pleasure to be able to pass on knowledge to this group of motivated medics that can someday save a life.”
The training of the National Engineering Brigade will continue this summer as NMCB 28 is replaced by NMCB 25 and the Seabees continue to prepare the ANA to deploy throughout Afghanistan.