YARVORIV TRAINING AREA, Ukraine -- During battle, life-threatening injuries can happen at any time. If it weren?t for the Shock Trauma Platoon, a relatively new concept in military medicine, many lives would be lost.
A shock trauma platoon is a small field hospital, much smaller than a battalion aid station, designed to be highly mobile and kept close to the forward edge of the battlefield in order to provide rapid treatment of injured Marines.
Members of Shock Trauma Platoon, 4th Medical Battalion, San Diego, Calif., packed their gear and traveled halfway across the world to participate in the well-planned and scripted chaos of a simulated mass casualty drill as part of Exercise Cooperative Adventure Exchange '02 at the Yarvoriv Training Area near L'viv, Ukraine, October 2-17.
The exercise integrated various aviation, medical, field artillery, headquarters and infantry units from 19 different countries.
During the mass casualty drill, a nearby Italian field hospital provided ambulances to transport the victims from the simulated battlefield to the STP where the Marines would unload them, check for weapons and identification, and send them to the doctors who performed a rapid assessment of injuries.
The doctors, nurses, and corpsmen were faced with simulated battlefield injuries such as collapsed lungs, missing limbs, gunshot wounds, and psychotic dementia, to name a few.
In addition to the hectic scene of trauma care, the STP members also had to contend with Ukrainian and American civilian reporters and dozens of onlookers from medical staffs participating in the exercise.
"The drill went exceptionally well," said Lt. Cmdr. John Western, assistant officer in charge, STP, 4th Med. Bn. "Even though the injuries were not real, it felt like a very real situation. The pressure was still there to keep the flow of life saving medicine going," he adds.
For many of the Marines attached to the STP, this was the first time they got to see their unit in action.
"This was a good exercise for me because now I know my role as a Marine in wartime situations," said Lance Cpl. Angelina Arellano, a 20-year-old student from Corona, Calif.