I believe Platypus is going officer route though, so I he's still got to sit the main OSB. But I know what you mean in terms of applying for soldier, happens so quick after the medical etc it's awesome
.**British Armed Forces Discussion Thread**
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I believe Platypus is going officer route though, so I he's still got to sit the main OSB. But I know what you mean in terms of applying for soldier, happens so quick after the medical etc it's awesome
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Watched a program on Iplayer today. Absolutely fascinating, but very sad and shocking.
The level of incompetance shown by the British army in treating their wounded is shocking.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011vngx/Our_War_Ambushed/
The level of incompetance shown by the British army in treating their wounded is shocking.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011vngx/Our_War_Ambushed/
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Well that was early days in Afghan and I think we've come a long way. One of my battalion's soldiers lost 3 limbs in an IED blast but he lived thanks to the actions of the soldiers with him and of course the medical staff further down the chain and the pilots who carried him to bastion.
The level of incompetance shown by the British army in treating their wounded is shocking.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011vngx/Our_War_Ambushed/
Haven't had time to watch this yet, so mind explaining what was so bad?
I've yet to meet anyone with a bad word to say about our medical services.
Associate
Watched a program on Iplayer today. Absolutely fascinating, but very sad and shocking.
The level of incompetance shown by the British army in treating their wounded is shocking.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011vngx/Our_War_Ambushed/
The MERT teams are second to none and have saved hundreds of lives between Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The Platoon is in its first hot contact and they take a casualty, the extraction of the casualty is pretty slow, tripping over the stretcher, dumping him by the vehicle and not loading him on. In fairness he was most likely fatally wounded and only instant admission to a fully equipped hospital could have saved him. The trauma of being dragged out of the firing line, stretchered and flown out was too much for his damaged body.
You've got to remember that the people evacuating him wanted him to live but were in a whole world of shock themselves, it would have been many of the NCO's first real contact and even more of the privates.
They did their best for him, wasn't enough but I think it made no difference, the young lad was doomed as soon as he was hit.
Soldato
And TBH the Officer did say afterwards their 1st casualty was a huge wakeup call for them and they (as a platoon) improved massively after that.
Bit harsh that? One isolated incident and the Army is suddenly incompetent. As I_M_Weasel said, it was very early in the campaign time-line (Herrick 6, first Brigade size deployment into Helmand), most of the lads in that snippet of film were first tourists and had only been in theatre a matter of days. That was their first ever hot contact, most of them were obviously in shock. Even for those with experience of Telic (Iraq), this would have been something new.
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Joining does fly by, around this time last year i had my start date... I am now sat in Chatham getting baffled by loads of maths...
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The level of incompetance shown by the British army in treating their wounded is shocking.
A lot to do with the specific regiment. Weak and bad drills.
Soldato
............................................................................Then there's WrensTheres civvie girls...... then theres falklands girls
Agreed, it was a high chest wound so I'm guessing he was pretty screwed, but I just found the method of withdrawl a bit baffling. Surely they'd have practiced evacuation to death?
True that.
True enough, not disputing that, but I'd like to think that if I was ever wounded in action or a mate was, that the best possible chance would be given to me.
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Part of the problem of training for casualty evacuation is that you train on other soldiers - who help. So when you want to pick up a soldier and put him in a firemans lift, the "injured" soldier helps to get into the position, a badly injured soldier can't help you, getting a non helpful badly bleeding body into a moveable position whilst been shot at is hard.
It has been realised that we needed to work on this and the army has done so. Quite often casualty evacuation scenarios will use disabled volunteers covered in simulated wounds, this helps to reduce the shock of seeing a soldier with missing limbs if it really happens. Early in Afghan a mindset of being lucky existed in that you didn't really think that anyone would get hit, that beliefs gone, the mindset is now, it will happen and more than once.
Associate
Just wanted to add that after catching a bit of trooping the colour on tv today the British forces continue to make me so proud of them as a British citizen, they are so well trained and disciplined. Good on you all.
I also found this quite shocking. I would expect things like how to use a stretcher properly to be drilled into their heads so much it is second nature.
Having said that, given the situation, it's not fair to judge. It's not every day you're stood in a firefight, and have one of your friends laying on the floor dying in front of you.
I suppose our armed forces have a reputation for being very professional at what they do, and we have all come to expect everything to be at this high standard all of the time, which of course is not possible no matter how well you know your drills.
Lets hope that lessons are learned from what happens in that video, though.
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Craphats!
Associate
Its nice to see people's opinion of the Med Servs is that we are top notch!
After 14 years, 3 tours of Iraq and about to start my second tour of Afghan I'm getting a bit thredders with it all.
After 14 years, 3 tours of Iraq and about to start my second tour of Afghan I'm getting a bit thredders with it all.
Urgh, we don't have a pinkhat in our midst do we?.
What's that slang for?