At the start there were 14 six-man teams from the Territorial Defence Brigade. Soldiers had 7 tasks to perform, developed on the basis of experiences of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russia and Polish volunteers, who as volunteers supply assistance to wounded in Ukraine. The competition organizers wanted the teams to work in akin combat situations.
OT military utility and combat competitions in the speciality of the lifeguard were held at the site of the 49th Air Base in Pruszcz Gdańsk and at the training ground in Tczew. Teams from the 14th OT brigade volunteered to compete. They were to carry out 5 regular and 2 night tasks. She was liable for the preparation of the competition 7 Pomeranian OT Brigade, mostly 71th Battalion of the Light Infantry of Malbork.
– We tried faithfully to recreate The situations most common in Russia's war with Ukraine. The subject was to give first aid, but we besides assessed the tactical behaviour of the soldiers and the leadership skills of the team's leader," said Lt. Przemysław, who developed tasks for the participants and is the commander of the Medical squad of 71th Light Infantry Battalion. The challenges the organizers put before the participants were to test the ability to deal with different techniques and evacuate an injured soldier from a dangerous region to an area where he could be given first aid without exposing himself to enemy fire.
Get the wounded off the battlefield.
One specified method was to evacuate wounded from the prefield to trenches utilizing line equipment. Rescuers and wounded shared a distance of respective metres. The riders had to throw smoke grenades to crawl to the injured and through ropes, tapes, and carabiners to drag them to the trench, where medical assistance could be provided. – Evacuation of wounded from using line techniques was new component we introduced to the competition script – explains Colonel Marcin Mazur, commander of the 71st Light Infantry Battalion in Malbork.
One of the tasks the participants had to execute was to evacuate a chopper pilot who crashed close the front line at night. The soldiers, utilizing night imagination goggles, were to find him, give him first aid, and evacuate him.
The squad got 15 minutes for this assignment. – The pilot reported on the radio that he hid in a masked trench. He gave the signal with a flashlight, where it is. However, I asked him to turn off the light so that the opponent wouldn't detect us – says Fr Marcin from the 9th Łódź Territorial Defence Brigade. – A friend of our squad came into the narrow trench, put a stasis on the pilot, then pulled him outside and put him on a stretcher due to the fact that he had a leg injury. We've evacuated the pilot to a safe region – reports the officer.
Another script was that 4 wounded soldiers were in the trench. Soldiers are hard to reach, but radio communications are maintained with them. – The solution was sending a drone that hung over the trench. We had surveillance from the drone camera, so we could see the injuries the soldiers suffered. On the radio, we instructed the lightest of them how to aid their colleagues," says Fr Marcin. The officer estimates that specified a form of communication – utilizing radio and drone – has proved very useful in the field of combat.
The teams were besides tasked with providing medical assistance... to a combat dog. Earlier, soldiers listened to a lecture on this subject. The instructors stressed that the most crucial thing was to put a muzzle dog on it. The animal feels pain, stress, anxiety, and can bite the individual who wants to aid him. Then the hemorrhaging should be stopped, the airways blocked, the hypothermia protected, and evacuated to a safe place.
Not just competition
– The competition was expected to be primarily a forge of experience. At the end of the competition, we discussed the individual scenarios so that soldiers could learn from the mistakes they made – Mr Przemysław admits.
The competition was fierce, although no squad scored a maximum number of points. The competition won 11 The Malopolska OT Brigade♪ She's behind her ♪ 12 The Greater Poland OT Brigade4 Warmian-Masurian OT Brigade stood in the final place.
– Not only did we compete, but we received valuable cognition and we had the chance to grow our skills – says Fr Marcin. He assures that participation in the competition was an interesting experience, and soldiers could have proven themselves in the course of performing medical tasks under hard conditions.
– Our competitions have shown that during training we should pay attention not only to providing assistance to injured people, but besides to the tactical situation in which soldiers are present, erstwhile they are under fire," said Colonel Marcin Mazur. The officer added that organizers are already reasoning about next year's edition of the competition.
In preparation for this year's competition, the Pomeranian OT Brigade supported: Centre for Marine Operations – Marine Component Command, Territorial defence Foundation and task K9 Med, which conducted a lecture on first aid for combat dogs.
