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2009 EPISODE 8 of 12: RANGER FIRST RESPONDER

The Ranger's medical First-Responder skill will be tested with the downed pilot scenario.

2009 EPISODE 8 of 12: RANGER FIRST RESPONDER

The Ranger's medical First-Responder skill will be tested with the downed pilot scenario.

Fort Benning Georgia, Todd field, the Best Ranger Competition: day two.

Now twenty-seven hours into a 59-hour event, the Ranger two-man teams are facing a nonstop round-robin series of events. They will traverse a live-fire stress shoot encountering multiple weapons systems. And then take on a combat throw-and-go grenade range. But today's one event that will test a Ranger's medical First-Responder skill is the downed pilot scenario.

The Task, Condition and Standards

SGT Ryan M. Fifer: "The events Ranger's First-Responder Lane, so all these guys have been through a Ranger's First-Responder medical course or combat life-saver course at some point in their military career. And what it's testing is the ability to move in a simulated combat environment down this lane to injured air crew member. They're told beforehand that there is a downed helicopter. There's simulated fire going on, some smoke, some artillery and they get to the helicopter and they need to put on some impressive fire. They remove the casualty, treat the casualty, and then evacuate the casualty to a safe area, call for medi-vac and fly him to safety."

First up, Team 21, Stackpole and Simms. They're still holding on to a slim lead over Team 22, Zajkowski and Jenkins. They can't afford any mistakes that will cause them to give up the lead. Now, 32 hours into the event, with virtually no sleep the simplest task becomes monumental.

LTC (Ret) Blain Reeves: "Right now, these guys are really feeling the effects of last night. Their minds are thinking on the task that they gotta do, gotta accomplish and they're not thinking too far beyond that. They're having to dig deep, they're going into the gut-check mode just to get up this next hill and complete this next task. These guys are going a hundred percent at this task because they know that if they don't, the team next to them are going to beat them."

Team 22, Zajkowski and Jenkins, are taking their swing at the First-Responder course. Both Rangers are pass winners of the competition and are not easily shaken by the pressure.

The First-Responder Lane is structured to test the Rangers combat medical abilities. On today's modern battlefield, more times than not, your battle buddy will be first one to your side before a medic can arrive.

SGT Ryan M. Fifer: "There's something that has been tripping up most people is improperly preparing the scapegoat litter for area evacuation. On top of that, they can skip over some of the medical assessment, granted most of the guys who come into this are infantry men or some are combat arms, they're not medical personnel."

Team 31, Antia and Mutchie. This is a lane they expect to do well on. Mutchie is the only Combat Medic left in the competition. Last year he was part of the Cadre scoring the competition, today he's a competitor.

Antia and Mutchie's time was the fastest overall on this event. Giving them enough points to move into third place as they close the gap on the leaders.

SSG Antia: "I'm feeling fantastic, like a million bucks."

Next time on BRC 2009. With the midday heat baring down on them, the remaining Ranger teams face the tri-tower challenge.

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