Balad first sergeants bare veins for IV training

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jason Lake
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  People assigned to the 332nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron received life-saving medical training July 15 on the arms of first sergeants here.

More than six Balad first sergeants rolled up their sleeves and "took one for the team" to give a few patrolmen intravenous therapy training for severe dehydration or trauma.

Master Sgt. Michael Strickland of the 64th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, and medics from the 332nd Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility, taught the security forces Airmen proper techniques for finding a vein in a patient's arm while the first sergeants served as the guinea pigs.

The training was essential for the troops, especially in the desert, said Master Sgt. Robert Foley, the 332nd ESFS first sergeant and organizer of the event.

Sergeant Foley, who is deployed from 325th Mission Support Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., said on patrols, his troops are exposed to temperatures higher than 115 inside their Humvees. The protective equipment the Airmen wear only adds to the heat stress, he said.

In the past few weeks, there have been a few cases of dehydration out in the field, so he enlisted some volunteers to help sharpen the medical skills of his troops, Sergeant Foley said.

"It's very difficult to start an IV on dehydrated patients," Sergeant Foley said. "Our combat life savers wanted to increase their proficiency in starting IVs under adverse conditions."

The first sergeant said he had a good idea where to look for volunteers -- his first sergeant colleagues.

"As first sergeants, our job is to help our people," he said. "In this case, by lending our veins we show (the Airmen) we have faith in their abilities."

Master Sgt. Nancy Clegg, first sergeant for the 332nd CASF volunteered her arm for the training.

"I told them that they would get four tries out of me," she said with a hint of sarcasm.

The Airman training with Sergeant Clegg got the IV to take on the fourth try.

Afterward, Sergeant Clegg, who is also a medical evacuation technician, said she would have lent her arm as long as it took to help.

"These guys are the ones that go outside the wire and protect us while I work behind my desk," she said. "If I can help them by lending them my arm, then they can stick me almost as much as they want."

Senior Airman Irene Atkins, one of the Airmen who received the training, said she learned an easier way to get the needle into a vein. Airman Atkins and a few others also trained with the Army here in February.

"It was good practice," she said. "This kind of training is important because we don't want to lose one of our own. It's as hot as an oven out there, and we don't want anyone to get sent home."

Staff Sgt. Jason McQuarrie, another trainee deployed here from the 4th Security Forces Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., said the training could also be useful when he rotates back to the United States. Being a first responder back home, Sergeant McQuarrie said the training here could help save someone suffering from severe dehydration or trauma after a major accident."

"You never know when you're going to use it," he said.