Reduce Combat Deaths by 20% Now! Implement Tactical Combat Causality Care (TCCC)

by Capt Bill Kibble USAF (Ret.), Vietnam Veteran

I strongly encourage readers to lobby President Barack Obama and their Congressmen to implement Tactical Combat Causality Care (TCCC) now which could reduce combat deaths by up to 20 percent; its saved an estimated 1,000 lives!!

The TCCC advanced first aid skills – developed by military trauma specialists – have saved an estimated 1,000 lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The training stresses aggressive control of blood loss with tourniquets.

Preventable combat deaths — primarily cases where troops bleed to death — have been eliminated in an Army Special Forces unit and the 75th Ranger Regiment, both trained in TCCC skills.

If this training had been implemented in 2001, it could have saved up to 808 lives in Iraq and Afghanistan!

This Vietnam veteran feels the Army’s goal to replace its first aid training with the TCCC curriculum by Jan. 1, 2010 amounts to dereliction of duty!!!

All service branches and their National Guard and Reserve forces should begin TCCC training immediately. Warriors in combat zones should be given plastic laminated cards explaining the techniques; also the life-saving info should be available on-line, DVD and CD.

Additional advanced first aid training subjects includes better use of dressings and bandages; treating shock and chest wounds.

Every day training is delayed, more warriors – the only Americans sacrificing for the Afghanistan and Iraq – will bleed to death.

America’s Armed Forces (especially the brass) need to embrace the slogan: “The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.”

---

ABOUT AUTHOR:

  Capt Bill Kibble USAF (Ret.), Vietnam Veteran from Boise Idaho.  He can be reached via email at pbkibble@cableone.net

SOURCE: “Military considers revised medical training for troops,” Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY, Sept. 14, 2009. USA TODAY is a friend of veterans covering areas like MRAPs, suicides, TCCC training, etc.