One-hundred fifty doctors, dentists, nurses, operating room technicians and hospital corpsmen from the Bremerton Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) at Naval Hospital Bremerton recently returned from three days of combat survival skills training at the Marine Corps Base in Camp Pendleton, Calif. 

Completing the final phase of qualification for Tier 1 readiness status, the Bremerton EMF successfully passed its Operational Readiness Evaluation and is now one on first call for deployment if needed.

The war in Iraq drove the flavor of training the EMF received. Because they might have to support a surgically intensive facility located far-forward, the Bremerton staff, along with their San Diego and Oak Harbor colleagues, underwent skills training to enhance their safety in a combat area.

Freshly returned from Iraq, Camp Pendleton Marines and Sailors taught the Bremerton officers and Sailors procedures to enhance their safety when traveling in truck convoys.  They instructed them on handling and shooting the 9mm Beretta pistol and the M-16 rifle for self-defense. 

The Bremerton team was familiarized with the PRC-119 radio should they need to use it to communicate. And the combat Marines and Sailors showed the Bremerton EMF staff pictures of - and hiding places for - the improvised explosive devices that are causing so many injuries in the Middle East, and discussed with them the Navy’s vital role in providing medical support for the Marine Corps.

Battle experienced corpsmen and doctors discussed the most effective tourniquets to control bleeding, what emergency airway techniques work best, and the medical evacuation procedures necessary to airlift an injured Marine, Sailor or Soldier to medical care.

Capt. H.R. Bohman, a general surgeon who had operated with the 1st Medical Battalion, Forward Resuscitative Surgical Suite, gave a graphic photo presentation of the types of extremity, abdomen, chest, neck, face and head injuries the Bremerton staff might have to treat, should they get the call to deploy. 

Working in teams, the Bremerton folks also set up the quick but sturdy pop-up tents that would house their people and equipment. Coming from the Expeditionary Medical Facility warehouses in Cheatham Annex, Md., these tents, along with the accompanying wire crates stuffed with medical equipment, form the logistical core required for the medical staff to successfully accomplish their medical mission.

On a day-to-day basis, the Bremerton EMF medical personnel are practicing clinicians already working in stateside operating rooms and hospital clinics, and they have the surgical and medical skills necessary to treat the serious injuries occurring in Iraq. The recent Camp Pendleton training, however, not only added to their medical armamentarium, but it also taught them ways to stay safe in a dangerous area of the world.