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Georgian soldiers hone casualty evacuation skills prior to joining Marines in Afghanistan

US Marine Corps News

3/21/2011
By Gunnery Sgt. Alexis R. Mulero, Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group

HOHENFELS, Germany -- This week’s “shurah” meeting with the village of Bakwa elders was no cup of tea for the leaders of Georgian Army’s Alpha Company, 33rd Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) when actors playing counterinsurgents brewed up a surprise mortar attack on the company’s combat out post (COP) that wounded several Georgian soldiers and put the company’s casualty evacuation proficiency to the test during a mission rehearsal exercise (MRE) at Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) Hohenfels, Germany, Feb. 24.

These Georgian soldiers are part of the Georgia Deployment Program (GDP) and the MRE is the culminating exercise to assess their ability to conduct distributed counter insurgency operations prior to their upcoming deployment in support of International Security Assistance Forces with Regimental Combat Team Eight (RCT-8) in the Helmand Providence, Afghanistan.

“Today Alpha Company got the opportunity to sharpen their ability to medically assess their wounded personnel and to also utilize and communicate with enablers during a casualty evacuation,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher Mullen, a corpsman at Marine Corps Training and Advisory Group. “These skills are extremely important for them to master prior to deploying to a combat environment.”

During the casualty evacuation, Georgian corpsmen were on top of their game, according to Mullen. They effectively treated the soldiers’ wounds in a timely manner, and regularly checked their vitals and breathing to ensure there were no serious changes prior to airlifting to a medical treatment facility.

Marine observers agreed that the Georgians soldiers took full advantage of this unique opportunity to put into action lessons learned over the last four months.

“The Georgians casualty evacuation procedures are very good and their docs (medics) and noncommissioned officers are professionals who have an eager willingness to learn,” said U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Joseph Wiseman, observer/controller, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Twenty Nine Palms, Calif.

Wiseman, who is a native of St. Louis, recently deployed to Afghanistan where he worked closely with the 32nd Georgian Army Light Infantry Battalion, which is the battalion that the 33rd LIB is replacing. Wiseman brought with him many lessons learned from his interaction with the 32nd LIB that assisted the 33rd during the training and will assist them in their upcoming deployment in support of ISAF.

“It feels really good to come out and mentor the Georgians on what they can expect and how to best support the gaining regimental combat team and the Afghan people,” Wiseman explained.

According to Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Libby, the radio chief for RCT-8, the Georgians faced a couple of challenges today during the casualty evacuation. These challenges included the language barrier between the Georgians and enablers and the familiarization with some of the communications gear that they will utilize to communicate with enablers in Afghanistan.

Although language barrier and new equipment may seem like a challenge now during the exercise, the native of Rumford, Maine was quick to add that the 33rd LIB is making great strides to overcome these and all challenges confronted.

“They are learning at a rapid rate,” said Libby who was deployed to Afghanistan and got to work with the Georgian Army’s 32nd LIB. “Seeing how far the 32nd Battalion has gone is impressive. I am sure the 33rd Battalion will have as much success if not more during their future deployment.”

During the days that followed, Georgian soldiers swept the JRMC, looking for insurgents, weapons caches, improvised explosive device (IED) factories and most importantly tried to win over the local population. Many of the soldiers faced constant fighting with some getting into multiple firefights with insurgents on a daily basis.

“The final exercise is designed as an eight-day training period to force the Georgians to think about rest plans, logistic support and resource allocation,” said Col. Christopher McCarthy, commanding officer for MCTAG, which is one of the main units responsible for the training of the Georgian light infantry battalions. “We make the training long on purpose and this allows them to develop a true battle rhythm, which they can then apply in Afghanistan.”