R. Schoening
Amateur
88 Tactical - LE TacMed Instructor Course
Who (Instructor): S. Whittington of 88 Tactical. See 88 Tactical’s website for complete bio.
What (Course): Law Enforcement Tactical Medic Instructor
When: October 4-5, 2016
Where: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office - Omaha, NE
Why: Individual and Instructor Development
Course Overview: This course is designed to help Law Enforcement Agencies design, implement and teach their Officers and Deputies Tactical Medicine and fighting while wounded techniques.
Students: 15 total, 14 males, 1 female.
Backgrounds: 9 Law Enforcement Officers and 6 Tactical Medics (all Paramedic certified). A large majority of the group (LE) had a medical background with several EMT-Paramedics and EMT's included.
Firearms - Glocks. No issues to report in regards to firearms malfunctions, ETC.
Kit - Roughly 2/3 of the students completed the course in some array of body armor / plates. No issues to report in regards to equipment issues, ETC.
Weather - Picture perfect range training day on TD2 with temps in the high 60's to low 70's, with sunny skies and low winds.
Training Day #1 - TD1 was focused on medical skills for Law Enforcement, specifically rapid recognition and treatment of life threatening injuries to include massive bleeding, chest injuries (tension pneumothorax) and airway trauma. In addition to the previously mentioned topics, we also covered carries, drags and other extrication / evacuation considerations for LE. Both the Recognition / Treatment and Evacuation blocks contained lecture and hands on modules. All of the content covered was supported by TECC. The course was arranged with the core curriculum covered in the morning block and teach backs in the afternoon. We concluded TD1 with a written test, a passing score was required to pass the course.
Training Day #2 - TD2 was focused on presentation and manipulation of pistols with simulated injuries, specifically presenting from the holster, reloads, and malfunctions with primary hand only and support hand only. The goal of the range portion was to identify safe ways to get and keep your pistol in the fight regardless of the injuries that would cause an officer to have to use his pistol with one hand or from the ground. Just as in TD1, TD2 covered the core curriculum in the morning block, with teach backs taking place in the afternoon. We concluded TD2 with a comprehensive practical examination drill that entailed movement, presentation of our pistol with a malfunction and a reload all with our primary hand only. The examination drill was shot at 5 yards on a 4X6 piece of paper; there was a time limit of 30 seconds and there were multiple pass/fail tasks that had to be completed to pass the drill. The majority of the students had what I would consider an "advanced" level of firearms skills and passed the practical exam the first time. There were two students that took the exam several times before passing.
Summary - This was a very well thought out, organized and instructed course that is extremely relevant to what I have seen within the LE community as far as medical and shooting needs. The medical block was Law Enforcement focused, yet did not get to far into the details where it could be construed as being over a non-medical professionals head. The shooting block was challenging from start to finish, yet organized so that the students were able to get quality repetitions throughout the day in an effort to help them to understand movement, presentation and manipulations from multiple injured perspectives.
V/r - Rob