Camp Roberts

Another day at Camp Roberts has sunset. Yesterday's period of instuction covered "react to fire" and such. This morning I learned some more "army combatives"; some good hoo ah training!

A Day At The Airport

I have arrived at Camp Roberts. I had the oportunity to spend most of the day at the airport in San Jose which was nice because it allowed me to see my wife and son using Yahoo Messenger. The USO has a lobby at the airport where military personnel can hang out and they provide free refreshments. I think it was about 80* at the airport.

CMAST Graduation

Graduation was from 8 - 10 then I has the rest of the day off.

CMAST Training is done!

Now that the training is over I guess I should tell what CMAST stands for.
Combat Medic Advanced Skills Training.

The past three days was hands on training where I was able to incorporate the knowledge into different real life situations. I feel a little more confident in my abilities to perform skills now such as
-handling patients who are not cooperating
-triaging patients
-calling in 9 line medevac requests
-leading soldiers

CMAST Training Day 8

It was one of those easy days today. I didn't have to be in formation until 12:30. My class went to one of the classroom buildings to help put medical supplies away. The training unit just recently moved here from San Antonio. Things were somewhat situated by around 2:30 so I had the rest of the day off.

I taught some of the guys how to play Back Alley. It reminded me of when family gets together during the holidays.

Signing off for now.

CMAST Lecture Day 7

Hi -

That was the first text message I sent to my wonderful wife; I'm happy she replied. - to be continued.

Sorry I missed posting last couple? of days (despite what the blog says, it's 1:13 in the morning here.

Yesterday and today was more periods of instruction regarding how medics are to work with detainees. I have untill noon off "tomorrow" and then we will prep to do "lanes" which is where I will be tested on my (our) medic skills that I learned.

CMAST Lecture Day 5

Tired, Yes, that's what I am. I was going to run this morning but did not.

Today, the weather was pretty nice again. Once again, I performed some more practical exercises consisting of

• sutures (pretty cool). One of the ER doctors, when I was doing paramedic school showed me some tips on how to do this but I did not get any hands on until today.
• I learned another method to clean wounds and then how to wrap it up again
• I learned how to clean an absessed wound (gross)

I was getting ready to take a nap but then a soldier from my home unit asked me to go bowling with him (It's his birthday today) so I agreed. He beat me pretty bad on the first game then on the next to games I rolled about 5 strikes per game and I ended winning. Don't ask me how I got so lucky. Actually, the computer at the alley wasn't working properly and it robbed me of about 3 more strikes. It was a good time!

Yesterday, I scored a 92% on my CMAST test.

I hope you readers are not looking for professional writing abilities.

CMAST Lecture Day 4 (posted on 4/14)

Today I shall only make bullets of what was done (Yesterday, 4/13).

Performed practical excercises

• Triage
• use of various litters
• extracting patiens from hummers
• loading patients on LMT

Classroom Lecture (I dont remember what we covered in class)

It was very cold today

CMAST Lecture Day 3

ahhhhhh!!! another wonderful day in the Army. Happy Easter to all, Christ has risen from the grave. Today, I attended the protestant service here on base (not quite what I'm used to). Being in a service where people are worshiping God is an awesome experience. During one of the hymnals, the chaplain noted the lillies were "dancing" as the pianist was playing (they were on top of the keyboard and it was shaking). Immediately the scripture from the Gospel of Luke came to mind:
"I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."

Training Today was good. I was 2 for 2 on IV sticks; one with lights on and the other only with a small red light. It was a short class today so I was able to get laundry done and study a bit from the book of Acts.

I have a video of Grandpa playing with Andrew that I have been watching lately and every time I view it, it makes me smile! God has blessed me with a wonderful wife and son whom I both love dearly.

Thank you all for your continued prayer it is an encouragment to me. Also, thank you for the text messages and emails.

CMAST Lecture Day 2

Day 2 of CMAST has come and gone. Up until lunch I sat in the classroom then during the lunch break I had my hair trimmed. After lunch, different stations were set up which included;

• Basic Air Adjuncts (NPA, OPA, King LT, Combitube
• Endotracheal Tube
• QuickClot etc
• Tourniquets
• Emergency Cricothyreotomy
• F.A.S.T 1

All in all it was pretty good hands on training even though most of it was review for me but a good refresher. I did learn a few new techniques to apply tourniquets.

CMAST Lecture Day 1

Today was basically an overview of the things we would cover during the course such as;

• Extremity Bleeding
• Tension Pneumothorax
• Airway Adjuncts.

I officially tasted the Mess Hall food both last night and today and it passed my inspection. I had bisquits and gravy this morning for breakfast and they were good.

I also went on a short little 15 minute job this morning with another soldier. Actually, a few of us soldiers went for the jog. One of the guys was nutrionally exuberant so I stayed back with him to motivate him; maybe I'll loose a few pounds on this deployment also.

CMAST (Medic Training) Ft. McCoy, WI

I arrived yesterday evening here at Ft McCoy to participate in medical training. I wasn't scheduled to arrive here until today so yesterday I had to myself. Today, I did in-processing and was issued a few items for training and now I have the rest of the day off. I am staying in an open squad bay with little privacy. The weather is not bad. I havn't eaten at the mess hall yet so I can't report on that but I heard it's descent food. I am looking forward to doing some good training.

SRP in Salem OR

Today is actually the 9th of April. I was not able to complete my post for the SRP in Salem due to a lack of internet connection. I stay at the Embassy Suites in Portland, it was a very nice room! For dinner I had prime rib, a salad, pop and some dessert; thank you tax payers! The following morning I got up around 4 am to catch my flight to Wisconsin. Things are going reasonbly well, not to hard. I miss being home.

Weapons Zeroing

Today our unit zeroed the sights on our weapons.

Preparing To Leave for PreDeployment Training

Welcome To My Blogspot

Thank You Landmark Church (and everyone else) for the support you have given me and my family as I prepare to deploy again to Iraq. I decided I would attempt to keep a blog of my journey, so let's begin!