Basic Infantry Medical Manual

The ACE medical system used in the 1st RRF is remarkably complex and provides an indepth level of simulation. Infantry are trained on how to keep themselves and their buddies in the fight long enough to receive proper medical attention from the properly trained medical teams.

Comprehensive information on the medical system and using it to handle casualties is available in the Tactical Combat Casualty Care manuals that apply to medical personnel.

Vitals

At a high level our medical system is based on the concept of keeping blood inside the body.

Death is caused by reaching a point where so much blood is lost that the heart can no longer effectively maintain blood pressure.

Second to blood is a pain threshold - When hit you will suffer pain; the amount of which depends on the type and impact point of the hit.

Extreme pain or heavy blood loss can induce unconsciousness. Unconsciousness from pain is temporary and the patient will eventually wake up however incapacitation from blood loss is permamnent and the patient will not wake up again without comprehensive medical attention.

Handling personal injury

The most important step in the TC3 pipeline is infantryman handling their own injuries as best they can to stay in the fight for as long as possible. Learning to quickly process the extent of your own injury is a critical skill to develop.

Handling Combat Injury

  1. Assess the damage Quickly assess the injury and determine if you are still able to fight. If you are combat effective continue to fight and do not stop to render aid until fire superiority over the enemy has been achieved. In the event that the wound renders you unable to effectively fight ( broken bones or severe bleeding ) you should immediately proceed with the following steps.
  2. Communicate your state Let your team know briefly on the radio that you have been hit and will need to render aid. Be sure to communicate your location so that in the event you fall unconciouss you can be recovered by the medical teams.
  3. Find cover or concealment Before rendering aid it is important to find cover to reduce the likelihood of you being engaged whilst rendering aid. This is a stop gap solution to having your team pull security for you however in the event of grave injury it is the best compromise.
  4. Do a comprehensive check Systematically check each area of your body and establish the gravity of your wounds.
  5. Apply tourniquets Tourniquets serve as a temporary solution to completely stop bleeding from the arms and legs. They must be removed within 15 minutes however they can often provide enough of a gap to allow infantry to finish the fight without receiving comprehensive medical care.
  6. Bandage wounds If you are still bleeding in spite of the tourniquet attempt to pack your wounds to reduce the bleeding. Your wounds should turn blue to indicate that the bleeding is being controlled by the bandages. Bandages are a temporary solution and the wound will continue to reopen until it is stiched by a trained medic.
  7. Administer pain management If you are in pain administer morphine to reduce the pain levels and try to maintain concioussness.
  8. Attempt to return to the fight If you are conciouss and able to fight you should try to return to the combat and assist the fireteam. Medics will be unable to render comprehensive care until fire superiority has been established and the faster this can be established the better.

Assessing and Treating Others

Danger

Do NOT render aid to others until the element has established fire superiority.

When another player is wounded and unable to render aid to themselves you should take the following actions:

  1. Conduct triage The first step is to check the casualty for vital signs. If the casualty is dead then mark their triage card as black and move on to other casualties. Once all wounded casualties have been dealt with you should return to the dead casualties and conduct the procedures detailed in the handling casualties section below.
  2. Control bleeding Apply tourniquets and bandages to help reduce the bleeding. If the casualty is responsive get them to also apply bandages to increase the speed at which the casualty can be assisted.
  3. Get the casualty to a medic Depending on the situation the fireteam leader will instruct whether the casualty should be moved to the medics at a CCP or whether the medics will move to the casualty. The medics will receive the casualty and you should return to handling other casualties, processing KIAs or simply providing security.

Handling Dead Personnel

Once a person has been confirmed as dead the following steps should be taken:

  1. Report the casualty to leadership Report the death to your fireteam leader who will in turn report the fatality up the chain of command. These reports will generally be batched and are not provided as a continous flow of information as the information is not time sensitive.
  2. Retrieve or destroy radios, maps and cryptographic equipment All KIA personnel must be stripped of all intel that could potentially compromise the operations of the remaining element. Maps can be checked for markings, radios can be used to eavesdrop on communications and encrypted GPS or satellite devices can be used to monitor the location of other friendly troops. Recovering these devices is a top priority for any casualty.
  3. Place the casualty into a body bag The casualty should be placed into a body bag and handed over to the medics for further processing. At this time the casualty become a logistical issue as opposed to a medical one and platoon leadership will make the necessary arrangements for the extraction of the body.