Abortion
Tactical Combat Casualty Care in Operation Iraqi Freedom
CPT Michael J. Tarpey, MC, USA
Current assignment: Battalion Surgeon 1-15 IN (PROFIS) Deployed to Middle East
Permanent Assignment: Winder Clinic, Ft. Benning MEDDAC
No duty phone, May contact at Michael.tarpey1@us.army.mil
Introduction
In the mid-1990s the U.S. Army Special Operations Command developed a new set of guidelines concerning the treatment of casualties on the battlefield. These guidelines, called Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), have been updated since their initial proposal and have been widely practiced with excellent results throughout the Special Operations community (1). However there has been very little spread of the use of the TCCC guidelines into conventional units. This article reviews the use of the principles of TCCC by a mechanized infantry unit in Operation Iraqi Freedom One ( OIF 1).
Background
When Task Force 1-15 Infantry (TF 1-15 IN), part of the Third Brigade Combat Team of the Third Infantry Division, deployed to Kuwait in January 2003 in preparation for war, I was assigned from the Professional Officer Filler System (PROFIS) as their Battalion Surgeon. While the infantrymen were training over the next several months for urban combat, trench warfare, and long-range movement, our medical platoon simultaneously underwent a rigorous train-up in preparation for combat. 1LT Robert (Brian) Fox, the battalion physician assistant, SFC Christopher Parker, the medical platoon sergeant, our other medical non-commissioned officers and I concentrated on teaching our 38 enlisted medics the principles of TCCC. Briefly, TCCC breaks up battlefield medicine into three stages:
1. "Care Under Fire" is care...
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