Submitted by: MCAS New River
Story by: Computed Name: Cpl. Randall A. Clinton
Story Identification #: 2007418115957

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C.(April 18, 2007) -- "To put as many men, on as many guns, as medically possible," recites Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Emanuel Carr, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464 squadron corpsman.

Carr and other corpsmen learn the mission and skills needed to accomplish it as part of a casualty evacuation class taught on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. The class brings together corpsman from all over the east coast who will deploy as the next CASEVAC unit so they can refine their medical skills together, said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Raymond Munn, CASEVAC lead instructor.

The doldrums of the Naval Clinic and run-of-the-mill doctor visits provide a dramatic contrast to the "anything goes" atmosphere of the battlefield, Carr said.

"Sick call is routine, out here is all new," said the 2-year corpsman.

Both new and old corpsmen gain from the class. The teachings of the class presented a new way to treat injuries for Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Angel Hernandez, Marine Helicopter Training Squadron 302 squadron corpsmen, who has been helping Marines for 16 years.

Hernandez has served in a number of other corpsman roles, both garrison and deployed, but has never flown CASEVAC missions. While deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Hernandez worked as part of a 22-person platoon prepared to deal with mass casualties and refugee camps, which provided him a wealth of medical knowledge. After all the years of practicing medicine, Hernandez is still learning new techniques such as how to help patients in the fast-paced world of CASEVAC. The lightning-quick reflexes needed in the deafening helicopters has led Hernandez to call the class "the toughest training in sixteen years of the Navy."

"You have all kinds of time to troubleshoot (in the clinic)," he said.

Complicating CASEVAC corpsmen's job, they are without the larger equipment and quiet patient rooms to evaluate each injury.

"How can you listen to lungs with the rotors spinning?" Hernandez asked rhetorically.

For these corpsmen, the course allows them to learn not only the textbook answer for these questions, but also practice with simulated casualties on helicopter flights, said Munn.

The corpsmen are tasked with "getting from the point of injury to a treatment facility," he said.

Referred to as the "golden hour," corpsmen learn that the first hour of medical assistance can make the difference of life or death.

"If you can give treatment (in the first hour), it increases the chance of survival ninety percent," said Hernandez. "Stop the bleeding, start breathing and get on the helicopter."

While Munn's students have become comfortable with the knowledge and application of CASEVAC medicine, he knows that there is only so much you can teach.

Munn remembered back to his first CASEVAC flight, his mind shuffling from concerns about his own safety to that of the patient. The ability to overcome nervousness and focus on giving the injured Marine the proper care, like Munn learned on his first flight, will be key to the development for the corpsmen, he said.

"We are going into an area that is not entirely safe," Munn acknowledged. "It is something they need to experience for themselves."

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