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mariacallous · 2 years

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Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has prompted more than $100 billion in aid since February, several votes at the United Nations, and the transfer or sale of high-tech weapons systems from the United States to Ukraine, including the HIMARS rocket launch system, Switchblade 600 drones, and MANPADS air defense systems. But another, more prosaic part of the West’s aid to Ukraine is having a significant effect on the conflict: medical supplies. Military medicine is a largely overlooked contributor to military effectiveness, but its effects are playing out in real time on the battlefield.

From better field sanitation to mechanized and air evacuation, as well as modern body armor, armies today that take advantage of these changes can not only save lives but also preserve the strength of their forces. In World War I, for example, injured U.S. soldiers could wait hours to be evacuated to a field hospital just a few miles away; during the war in Afghanistan, by contrast, injured U.S. military personnel would be evacuated to the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, or even back to the United States within a day or two.

By all accounts, Ukraine has much better military medicine than Russia. Ukrainian forces, for example, are well trained in Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), a set of prehospital guidelines developed by the U.S. military in the 1990s and revised and widely adopted in the early years of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. U.S. military medical practitioners found that 87 percent of preventable battle deaths occurred in the prehospital setting; among these, the most by far were dying from hemorrhage. Thus, the TCCC guidelines focus heavily on hemorrhage, with advice on when to apply tourniquets, hemostatic dressings, and clamps to stem blood loss. Aid from the West has included exactly these kinds of supplies, as well as related equipment such as body armor. Western advisors have also been pushing for the use of whole blood in far forward settings. One reason for Ukraine’s medical advantage is that it has welcomed such aid not just since this February but over the past eight years. Since the invasion of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine has been prepping for all-out war with Russia, including on the medical front.

Russian forces, on the other hand, lack medical training as well as supplies. A recent video shared widely on social media reportedly showed Russian officers telling new conscripts to purchase tampons to plug bullet wounds. Russia has suffered from shortages in military medical staffing for years. Russian morale is also reportedly quite low, as seen from both field reports and the flow of Russian men leaving the country so as not to be drafted into the army. One reason for low morale is likely reports of poor medical care and supply, including the use of Soviet-era first-aid kids and limited pharmaceuticals. While Russian personnel have had some training in TCCC, they appear to lack crucial modern equipment—such as the combat application tourniquet—to implement these guidelines.

Better military medicine matters on the battlefield for at least three reasons. First, having better medicine means saving more lives; in other words, militaries with better medicine can bring more people to the fight. They will likely be healthier at the start of the war and, all else equal, will be more likely to receive treatment that allows them to return to duty sooner rather than later.

Second, having better medicine means a higher likelihood of maintaining unit cohesion; rather than being sent home (or worse, dying), injured soldiers can be treated and returned to their unit. Social bonds can be maintained. New troops do not have to spin up on training. And third, better medicine translates into higher troop morale. Knowing that you and your fellow soldiers will receive good medical care in the event of illness or injury will make you more willing to fight and take risks. It signifies a country unwilling to waste its soldiers’ lives—in stark contrast to the attitude on display in Russia’s mass mobilization of often untrained soldiers.

Many of these factors were evident in the United States’ most recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The creation of a trauma registry in 2004 facilitated a revolution in military medical data collection, which, in turn, allowed for the research underlying guidelines like TCCC. The intense focus on stemming blood loss led to the invention and use of new kinds of tourniquets, hemostatic dressings, and catheters to maintain blood flow. And understanding the critical importance of delivering care as soon as possible prompted U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to implement the “golden hour” rule in 2009, such that any injured U.S. military personnel would be evacuated to a higher-level medical facility within the first, most crucial hour of injury. Combined, these changed contributed to a tripling of the United States’ wounded-to-killed ratio, from the traditional 3:1 to 10:1 in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Of course, there are many ways in which these wars are not comparable. One key difference is that the United States fought counterinsurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq. At least to date, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been a conventional war more reminiscent of past land wars in Europe—and with accordant levels of casualties. Artillery rather than roadside bombs have been the main mechanism of injury. Another important contrast has to do with air evacuation, a key part of saving the lives of the wounded. Neither Ukraine nor Russia has air superiority in this war. Thus, medical evacuation is compromised, although Ukraine is fighting closer to its own territory and with generally superior logistics. Given the importance of immediate care to the odds of survival, limited medevac helps make sense of the surprisingly low estimates of the Russian wounded-to-killed ratio at 3:1.

At the same time, there are important similarities, including around the politics of reporting casualty numbers. The best available estimates of Russia casualties, for example, are not coming from Russia. Instead, NATO and various Western intelligence agencies have been reporting these numbers. Ukraine’s own casualty reporting has been scanty at best. Part of the reason for both countries’ reluctance to report casualties is because such reporting can diminish morale—including among military forces, but also domestically. This practice speaks to the well-known “Dover effect”—referring to the images of military coffins draped with American flags being unloaded at Dover Air Force Base—in the United States. But it is also the case that casualty reporting has become part of the information warfare campaign. Ukraine, for example, reported 1,000 Russian fatalities after the first day of the war, while Russian media claimed that Ukraine had suffered 4,000 losses in a single week in September.

Actual casualty numbers—especially on the Ukrainian side—have increased as a result of Russian targeting of Ukrainian hospitals, in violation of international law. In addition to strikes on civilian medical infrastructure, such as that on a maternity hospital in March, Russian forces have also targeted Ukrainian medical evacuation rail lines.

Nevertheless, all signs point to Ukraine holding the medical advantage in this war. Medicine is of course not enough. The Finns likewise held the medical advantage over the Soviet Union in the 1939 Winter War. Finland used insulated medical aid stations, evacuated casualties by sled, and had generally better medical staffing and facilities. Although the war ultimately ended with a Soviet victory, medicine was nonetheless a force multiplier for the Finns, who had a much smaller population and were able to compromise the Soviet victory instead of being overrun. In a war where numbers matter, the side that has better medicine holds a distinct advantage.

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nonprofitarchitect · 3 years

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Sara LeCarno; Shifting Perspectives From A First Responder

In this episode of the Nonprofit Architect Podcast Travis speaks with Sara LeCarno; a first responder.

Starting from their own experience, they end up by understand why you are doing your mission.

Listen in now and be informed.

Reminder

To find out more about the Nonprofit Board Summit visit: https://www.nonprofitboardsummit.org/summit

Conversation Highlights:

[02:23] Getting involved in the VeteransForLife!

[06:41] How going through this type of program changes your perspective

Memorable Quotes:

1. Shifting your perspective gives you a better outcome 2. Asking for help doesn't mean you're helpless 3. You can take any class but until you look in yourself it won't click 4. Self evaluate and begin the healing process 5. If you absorb someone's bad day then you have a bad day

Bio:

Sara was born and raised in Portland, OR. She left home at 18 to live on the east coast for a few years before moving to Amarillo, TX for 8 years. She was nationally certified as an EMT out of Amarillo College. She was hired on shortly after with Amarillo Medical Services before American Medical Response came to the area. It was then that AMS would transition over to AMR. She transitioned to Springfield, MO for the last 8 years. She is training as a Wilderness EMT certification through NOLS in hopes of becoming part of a Search and Rescue team at a state park. She is certified in Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) and a member of FEMA’s Disaster Response Team. She has also been an FTO lead for 4 years.

Sara LeCarno

(417) 849-8566

[email protected]

Nonprofit Architect Podcast Links Website: https://nonprofitarchitect.org Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NonprofitArchitect

Check out this episode!

#Nonprofit

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focusmidtenn · 4 years

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We are in the middle of 🏳️‍🌈Pride Month🏳️‍🌈 and we are excited to announce part two of our Pride Giveaways! To enter to win, in the comments, share with us a pride memory, photo, or anything that gives you #pride! Winner will be announced on June 28th! Entries will be collected via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Check out the contents of the second give away (Valued at OVER $750!) below! 👇👇👇. Thanks to our local businesses who support the LGBT+ community! . . . . . Abar Above The Rest has donates 1 Bottle of CBD oil; Clifton + Leopold has donated 1 “Strut” Bow Tie; Home Run Pet Care has donated a Gift Card; Hyatt House Nashville at Vanderbilt has donated a 2 Night Stay; Redstone Federal Credit Union has donated a Golf Umbrella; The Turnip Truck has donated a $100 Gift Card; Third Coast Comedy Club has donated 2 pairs of tickets: 1 pair to the TCCC Show and 1 pair to SheHaw! https://www.instagram.com/p/CBmZdXrhDqa/?igshid=1ql5vxq6q7l89

#pride

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notoriousmasonowings · 5 years

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My Journey

Imagine you are 19 years old, you are about to enter your 3rd semester in college, you live with your best friends from high school. One day you wake up, you notice that you’re drooling, can’t speak, and you hardly recognize yourself in the mirror.

That was me.

My name is Mason Owings, and I would like to share my life changing experience.

I am a native of Dallas and graduated from Southlake Carroll high school. I took AP Calc, AP writing, and AP lit…graduating with honors in 2008. I was your typical nerdy college student majoring in New Media Art. I had attended TCCC and had transferred to the University of North Texas. I loved the ladies but not as much as I loved to play video games. World of Warcraft was my passion: my friends were mostly online, and I liked it that way.

In July 2009, I had a sudden increase in anxiety.

I started to worry about the little things: How was I going to get to class on time? How was I going to pay for textbooks? How was I going to find a job? I was entering my first semester at the University of North Texas.

I had a doctor's visit and was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder and was put on medication. A month passes by and I start to lose my balance, and I start to drool a lot.

I was referred to get an MRI. I had an MRI which had evidence of prior strokes and new strokes which brought me to the hospital where I stayed for a few nights.

Flash forward to October 2009, I finally receive a diagnosis of Wilson's Disease after being accused of huffing paint.

What is Wilson's Disease?

Wilson's Disease is a disorder that does not allow your body to process copper.

Instead, it stores it in your brain, liver, and kidneys which cause stroke-like symptoms, cirrhosis of the liver, and other issues.

This is a very rare genetic disease. Only 1 in 30,000 people are known to acquire it.

I had over a hundred doctors come see me, that's how rare it is.

But before you get better, you get worse! Thanks to the treatment.

I underwent chelation therapy which binds the copper to the drug, allowing the copper to exit the bloodstream through the urine. In doing so, the copper causes more damage to the affected organs as it exits the body.

For the next two years, I declined cognitively, and I lost my ability to walk and talk.

I entered Pate Rehab, where I regained my ability to walk and talk. I was discharged and entered a group home.

In 2011, I had some behavioral issues while I was in the group home, I got into a fist fight, and got kicked out. Thankfully my case manager referred me to My Possibilities, and that's when things started to change for the better. My Possibilities is a continuing education for adults with cognitive disabilities.

I join My Possibilities in June 2012 as a Client, and because of the confidence, ambition, and a sense of purpose that the MP program provided, I was able to bring my cognitive skills back from a 4th-grade level to college level.

I recently graduated with honors from Collin County Community College with my associate’s degree. I plan to continue my education and experiences where I can in turn make contributions to those who are sometimes forgotten by society. I’m employed in a job I love as a part-time HIPster Services Assistant at My Possibilities.

I never noticed a disabled person before I became one. I never saw them in a crowd never interacted with them, one on one.

It was only after I became disabled that I started to see them. They want the same things I want: Friends, relationships, to experience life.

We want to be included, loved and to be special to others. I make every day count and assure that our hugely important people get every opportunity that I got so that they can reach their full potential.

Thank you!

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johnlawton · 7 years

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#Repost @jay_paisley (@get_repost) ・・・ @emi_group just finished up another great day of training with some of our corporate clients. Our Corporate Active Shooter Education-or- CASE teaches not only what to during an event but how to help in the aftermath. Trauma skills are universal and can be applied at home, work and of course on target. #CASE #TECC #TCCC #TACMED #Leadership #VeteransGivingBack @madbomber_mike @jedburghtargets

#case #veteransgivingback #tacmed #leadership #tecc #tccc #repost

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minerva-harding · 3 years

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@aaliyahricherson

Location: True Colors Community Center

Having just come home after so many years away, Minerva was excited for any opportunity to get reacquainted with her town and meet new people. The social hour TCCC was hosting felt like a great chance to not only enjoy some company but do some learning at the same time. Entering quietly, the brunette made a beeline to the coffee Expresso Yourself had provided. It was much easier to focus when properly caffeinated. As she reached out to grab a cup her hand crossed over someone else’s. “Sorry, you go ahead-” She broke off the apology when she looked up and saw who it was. “Aaliyah! Hey! It’s so nice to see you!” she exclaimed with a smile.

#minerva harding #adventuring with aaliyah #closed starter

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glenmenlow · 4 years

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Why Old Has The Advantage Over New

New Coke’s day in the sun lasted 79 days. It was introduced on April 23, 1985 as a much-heralded replacement for old Coke. But the outcry over taking the original formula off the market was so intense that the Coca-Cola Company reversed course and brought back old Coke 79 days later.

Under one brand name or another, new Coke stuck around until 2002. But it never displaced old Coke as the favorite. It was always the old that outshined the new.

The Cola Wars of the 1970s and 1980s were a contest for the taste buds of America. In a single-minded push to quash the Pepsi Challenge, the Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) conducted extensive preference testing that established beyond any statistical doubt that new Coke was a better tasting soda. But in the research, it was never explained to respondents that the better tasting new product would completely replace the old brand. So TCCC never collected data that could have surfaced the deep and abiding if not always obvious affection that people had for the brand. Of course, it’s surprising that TCCC didn’t appreciate this to begin with — or more likely, it’s surprising that TCCC allowed itself to get distracted and forget this — but it certainly learned its lesson the hard way about testing only for taste. TCCC’s head of research admitted as much when he said to The New York Times the day after the original formula was brought back, people “fell in love with the memory of old Coke.”

The lesson of new Coke is a critical principle to remember when contemplating whether something new and different is enduring or ephemeral.

New Versus The Memory Of The Old

When something is always at hand, people tend to take it for granted. But when it is abruptly taken away it becomes noticeable by its absence. For things with deep cultural connections, like old Coke, what people notice most is how fondly they remember it. In such cases, people want to get back what they have lost, which reinvigorates the old to the detriment and demise of the new.

During the pandemic lockdowns over the past several weeks, people have been doing a lot of new things to replace the old things abruptly taken away from them — more online shopping to replace in-store shopping; more virtual connections to replace face-to-face connections; more videos to replace other entertainments; more take-home and delivery to replace on-premise and in-person; and so forth. But even as they have been doing all of these new things, many people have also been longing for a return to the things that have been taken away.

The key question is how much of the new will remain as lockdowns are lifted. Certainly, some will remain. But much will go back to what it was before. Indeed, we see this already.

For example, Carnival Cruise lines reported that bookings jumped 600 percent when it announced that some of its cruise lines would reopen in August, which translates to a 200 percent year-over-year gain for August. Bars in Wisconsin were packed the day after the state’s supreme court threw out the governor’s stay-at-home order. Some stores in Belgium, including IKEA, Decathlon, and Action, reported long queues of people waiting in line on the day that all stores were allowed to reopen. In the U.K., DIY retailer B&Q experienced huge crowds when it reopened 155 stores during the fifth week of the lockdown there. Officials lamented the reckless abandon with which people crowded onto beaches and lakes over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend. In many U.S. states, reopening beaches, and even wearing masks, has become a matter of divisive politics.

As choices and options have reopened, many people — in fact, many more than expected — are flocking back to what they did before rather than sticking with the new things that they were doing during the lockdowns. People missed a lot of what was taken away, and many people missed these things so much that they have been willing to throw caution to the wind at the first opportunity to go back.

Not everything has gotten a boost. Some things, like airline bookings and bus tours, have yet to see any resurgence of demand. Perceptions of safety play a part in what’s come back and what has not, but it’s clear from how and what people have done that safety alone does not account for it. What then is the difference between new Cokes that stick and old Cokes that bounce back?

What Is Most Valued Is Easiest To See

It’s easy to pinpoint old Cokes. They are the products and activities with the greatest cultural resonance in people’s lifestyles. Such things tend to be taken for granted, so people don’t typically wear these things on their sleeves. But when asked, these are the things that people affirm are most expressive of their nostalgia for what they remember as the good life of the past, and thus these things are often most representative of people’s aspirations for the future as well.

Much of the talk about the post-pandemic new normal presumes that the involuntary yet requisite experimentation with new things during the lockdowns automatically means that old things will be forgotten and dropped as lockdowns are lifted. But people have not only been exposed to new things. They have also been reminded of old things they were forced to do without. That reminder can be a powerful motivator, and what it motivates is a return to the ‘not new normal.’

Oftentimes, new Coke doesn’t usher in anything new. Instead, it brings old Coke back with a vengeance. And when that happens, the future looks a lot more like the old normal than the new.

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lisamatro · 7 years

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More fun at #VBS! Our missionary project is to help fund Forever Homes for children with AIDS and AIDS orphans in South Africa through Acres of Love (acresoflove.org). Cayden is also doing extra chores at home & helping in other ways to earn money. Thank you for your added support!! 💞 #fundraising #joyofgiving #missionaryproject #tccc #siblings (at Trabuco Canyon Community Church)

#vbs #fundraising #missionaryproject #joyofgiving #siblings #tccc

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agoddamn · 6 months

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With further hospital experience, more accurate versions of the "escaping medical" trope:

95% of the time if you're a 'challenging' (read: annoying) patient the medical response to wanting to leave AMA is "wonderful, love to see you getting the fuck out of here." Leaving AMA = problem solves itself. Odds are good the ambulance will haul your ass back the next day, but a few hours of peace are a few hours of peace.

(If you're not a 'challenging' patient and want to leave AMA, you'll get an earnest attempt to change your mind but once you've made your decision clear they can't and won't stop you. Unlawful detention [or kidnapping] is a serious charge and a hospital system responsible for the well-being of hundreds or thousands of patients will not put itself at legal risk for you.)

The other 5% of the time is when a patient does not have the capacity to leave AMA. Those times are...not funny. They're traumatic for the patient and can escalate wildly out of control and lead to so much hurt. They're fundamentally an override of basic Constitutional rights and consent and it's a horrible, horrible situation to be in. They're also a 'gray area' associated with some pretty fucking heinous medical/psychiatric abuses, so the fandom wacky hijinks take on it just leaves...a really bad taste in my mouth now.

tl;dr when you're medically detained it's usually for a good reason. If it's not for a good reason (or sometimes even when it is) you are about to have a traumatic fucking experience.

#tccc at home

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memsmedic1 · 7 years

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SCUBA Diving! 02/28/17-03/19/17

After teaching my third EMR course to Z-Rescue in Myawaddy I traveled to Yangon to apply for a tourist visa at the Thai embassy. I had to do this because of a new Thai law prohibiting more than two tourist visas to be automatically approved at a border crossing in a calendar year (and I’ve already used my two freebies). Well I went in ready to pay for my visa and found out that due to a low tourist census in Thailand the embassy was authorized to offer a promotion of free visa applications and today was the last day to apply for it!

My visa came in two days later so on that evening I took the night bus back to the border and crossed into Thailand on March 2.

Even though I live right next door to Thailand I’m too busy to hardly ever get away for a visit so I was looking forward to making the most out of this trip!

The main reason I was traveling to Thailand was because our team had been offered an opportunity to attend a rescue and recovery SCUBA diver class that is being taught by a rescue diver foundation we’ve worked with in Thailand in the past.

First thing I did after clearing immigration was catch a motorbike taxi to a great little Thai restaurant for breakfast, then because SCUBA classes don’t start for several days I walked to the songtau station and took a songtau to Sunshine Orchard Children’s Home and school for a few days.

School had just been let out for the season and all of the students who had families had gone home to visit them so the campus was a lot quieter than usual!

I played in the river with the children who stayed behind, read countless stories to them in the hammock, and we picked up trash around all the buildings and burned a bamboo house that had developed an unacceptably high termite to house ratio.

Early morning on the 5th I hitched a ride back to MaeSot and purchased a seat on a passenger van to take me to the bus terminal in Tak. After arriving I went to the ticket counter to get a bus ticket to Kanchanaburi and found out that the next bus wouldn’t leave until 9:30 that night!

After a tedious 11 hours (the bus was a little over an hour late) spent reading the medical book I had with me, wandering around looking at the shops, and buying a meal at one of them mainly because they had a place to charge my phone, the bus finally arrived.

The next morning the bus arrived in Kanchanaburi and after breakfast and a cup of coffee my team picked me up in our Thai ambulance that was also crammed full of diving equipment, and we went straight to the Royal Thai Air Force base which has a giant training pool that we had obtained permission to use for our diving class.

At 0800 our instructors from the Thai rescue and recovery SCUBA diver foundation arrived and training was kicked off!

After a brief and rather sporadic introduction to basic diving and the names and functions of the equipment we would be using, our instructor had us each choose a set of gear and prepare to go into the water for the first time.

I happened to choose the buoyancy control device with the air leak in it which was exciting since our first time in the water was jumping off the deep end!

The other main instructor that ended up teaching most of the course was a lot more thorough and meticulous and went over more of the theory and basics before we went in again (at the shallow end this time).

I had been worried that I wouldn’t be able to certify because I’ve always had a terribly hard time equalizing my ears when swimming or flying. But after practicing all that first day I was able to dive all the way down and even lay on the bottom!

I thought it was quite a surreal experience to be that far away from my natural habitat and still be semi self sufficient, after long enough below the surface you start to feel like you can stay down forever! Then your tank starts getting low on air or you have to pee or you want to tell someone something besides “I’m ok”, “shark”, “I’m out of air”, or another of the hand signals we learned.

Because there were too many of us to all fit in the ambulance unless we wanted to ride Thai style we commuted back and forth between the military base and the school property we have for sale in Kanchanaburi both in the ambulance and a passenger van.

While we were staying at the school going to class the villagers decided it was the right time of year to burn the jungle. This is a pointless and destructive practice (purely subjective obviously) that kills many stands of bamboo, trees, and small jungle inhabitants. The smoke was so thick that my eyes burned and I could taste it in the back of my throat.

The night after the fires were lit I went outside to see what I could see. Across the lake from me on the other side of the small valley I could see a giant half circle of angry red fire smoldering down the mountain towards me with another fire that I could only see the red glow from coming down the mountain our property is on.

In the jungle -even in the dry season- the humidity is so high that a fire can’t travel very fast and only burns the understory layer, so the villagers light the tops of the mountains and the fire just burns its way downhill unsupervised.

The next day we lit backfires where our property meets the jungle just to make sure all the buildings and orchards would stay safe.

The second day of dive class we learned how to buddy breath, clear the water out of our masks while under water, take off all our equipment under water to squeeze through an obstacle course and then put it back on, and not panic when the instructor or one of the other students would rip off our mask and pull out our regulator.

On the third day of class we learned underwater search and rescue techniques, rope signals, different ways to set up a search grid, and body recovery.

One night I was walking from my room to take a shower when I heard a rustling noise coming from behind the netting we have shrouding the doorway of the bathroom (there’s no door) like a spider web to help deter bats from flying in. Peering through I saw a large and colorful Tokay gecko staring back at me. Tokay geckos are the second largest species of gecko in the world and are considered a delicacy in Thai and Indonesian cuisine. They are also prized for their supposed healing qualities in traditional medicine and their distinct call makes them one of the loudest animals in the jungle (or house), but it’s ok because they eat huge quantities of mosquitos and cockroaches. Even though it was 1130 at night and I was exhausted I decided it would be a good idea to catch him for a picture.

I was able to shoo him into the shower room and after giving me an impressive runaround I finally threw a towel over his head and got ahold of him.

I don’t think he appreciated that very much because kept holding his mouth open and snapping at me like a baby alligator. He probably thought I wanted to eat him! I didn’t think too much about it at the time but I found out later that this species of reptile is not recommended for beginner exotic pet owners because of its powerful bite!

While I was trying to keep all my fingers intact, find my camera and get him in position for a picture a scorpion suddenly came running into the room pell mell straight for my flip flop protected feet! This is not normal behavior for a scorpion to attack like that but I was significantly distracted by the very angry gecko I was holding so I just shooed the scorpion back out the door. After standing stock still for a several seconds he frantically started running down the veranda away from me. Just as I was going back to the gecko I saw something else just outside the door in the semi dark running in the same direction. At first I thought it was a snake, but then I realized it was a massive centipede hunting the scorpion! I would have liked to follow them both and see what happened but the gecko was a more pressing matter and by the time I was finished photographing him (he actually made a startling noise and I dropped him) the pair was nowhere to be found.

After completing the rescue and recovery SCUBA diver course and receiving a Thai certification at an underwater ceremony I decided that I really like diving and at some point I am going to get more training!

Since I was so close already I wanted to visit my aunt and uncle who had just returned from visiting the US. Given the situation I had experienced during my last bus journey I said I would try to make it but I couldn’t guarantee anything!

After getting dropped off at the bus station in Kanchanaburi I took a van into Bangkok where I could get a bus the rest of the way to Ayutthaya.

The day before, one of my friends from Texas had let me know that he was in Thailand teaching a TCCC instructor course and we had agreed to meet up for lunch as I traveled through Bangkok.

Accordingly after I arrived at the Bangkok bus terminal I grabbed a motorbike taxi and took it 8 km through the city to our meeting point. My friend had was already there and so we had a great time talking and catching up.

That night it was too late to continue on so I stayed in a hotel and found a bus going to Ayutthaya the next morning. Since they were so busy trying to get caught up from being gone it was a pretty hectic weekend with my aunt and uncle. Then I had to say goodbye and was back on the bus headed to MaeSot.

After another brief visit to Sunshine Orchard I crossed back into Myanmar on Sunday the 19th, just in time to ride back to Yangon with some teammates who had just finished packing our newly completed ambulance full of medical supplies and hired a driver to take it north to our operations area!

After I crossed the border, my phone had a malfunction and I couldn’t use it to contact anyone from my team to let them know I was back. I wasn’t sure what to do so I just walked to the bus stop and there I found one of them! She was guarding the back seat that used to be in the ambulance, tools, and a bunch of other stuff going back to our headquarters in Yangon waiting for the bus to arrive. Needless to say, I was relieved!

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esprit-de-corps-magazine · 7 years

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How To Spend $80 Billion

(24-01)

Vincent J. Curtis

A decade ago, NATO alliance members, Canada included, pledged to spend two per cent of the country’s gross domestic product on defence. Only the UK and USA have consistently met that goal. President Donald J. Trump has said that, unless other NATO members start pulling their weight in respect of defence spending, the United States may not come to the defence of an attacked NATO country that failed to pull its weight.

It does Canada no good to pull out of NATO as a means of avoiding U.S. pressure to spend more money on defence. In the first place, Canada cannot pull out of NORAD, which is a bilateral continental defence alliance with the United States. In the second, the purpose of a defensive alliance is to reduce defence spending across the board. Leaving NATO would require Canada to look after all its defence needs outside of NORAD, such as sovereignty in Arctic waters. Departure would entail an increase of defence spending anyhow.

Canada simply needs to put on its big-boy pants and start acting like the important nation she has become. Canada’s contribution to world peace will come about partially by becoming militarily stronger. Defence spending is cheap insurance, and if it keeps Trump off our backs in respect of trade, then it will be doubly worth the money.

The difference between what Canada spends annually on defence and two per cent of our gross domestic product (GDP) is roughly $20-billion. Over the four years of a Trump administration, Canada needs to find a home for $80-billion in defence dollars. These are not hard to find.

The Royal Canadian Navy needs to be completely recapitalized, and $40-billion could easily be spent on that. Canada should be aiming for a 25-ship surface combatant fleet consisting principally of frigates; a couple of battlecruisers (or missile cruisers if a battle-cruiser seems too warlike), supply ships and icebreakers for the far north would round out a blue water navy. Beneath the waves, the four submarines of the Lemon class — I mean the Victoria class — could also absorb a few billion to get them finally operational.

That leaves $35- to $40-billion to spend on capital equipment for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Army in years three and four. Placing an order now for 120 to 150 F-35s would absorb the best part of $20-billion, and the purchasing war stocks of expendables and capital upgrades of bases would consume the rest of year three’s capital expenditure.

In year four, it would be the turn of the Army. What capital upgrades could the Canadian Army use? Let’s start with rifle sights. New, digital rifle sights would enable Recruit Bloggins to hit small targets out to a thousand meters with 90 per cent plus probability of a hit with minimum training. The system, called Tracking Point PGF, is presently being sold already mounted on rifles and is expensive, but a precision marksman per section should have one immediately. As the system matures it will be affordable to replace Elcan sights with them.

Compared with other armies, Canada’s army is utterly deficient in rotary aviation. And I don’t just mean AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopters — you know, the ones that can kill tanks from multiple kilometres away, and terrorists as well? I mean drones that kids across the street play with. How hard can it be to equip ground units — infantry, armour, and especially artillery — with small drones that enable spotters to find the enemy at great distances and quickly without exposing themselves? Even body cameras can be acquired and used to look around corners to provide a picture of what’s waiting for the lead man.

Canada has a terrific facility in its Mechanized Training Centre at CFB Wainwright. The army has also employed SAT (small arms training) ranges as a means of simulating combat for soldiers. What about virtual reality? How hard can it be to equip a company or a battalion or even the entire reserve system with virtual reality trainers as successors to the now old and mostly non-functioning SAT trainers?

The tactical ground communications system is centred on the Tactical Command and Control Communications System (TCCCS), a radio system that was essentially obsolete the moment it was fielded. Cell phones in urban areas provided parallel lines of communications for guerrilla forces, whereas the TCCCS allows only one channel of communication, to be used serially. Given all the new cell phone and satellite technology, surely some communication system can be developed that empowers every soldier on the battlefield to communicate with any other soldier other than by shouting. The aural system by which the soldier receives tactical instructions from his commander can be one of those that not only amplifies quiet sounds around him but also electronically dampens sounds above 85 decibels, protecting the soldier’s natural hearing.

We are deficient beyond imagining in artillery as compared with Russia and the United States. Realistically, we could triple the number of M777 guns in inventory and still be below our proportionate needs.

These ideas barely scratch the surface, and none of them involve increasing the operating costs of the CAF over the four years. All of these expenditures are capital. To that extent they are temporary. Expansion of the operating cost of the CAF, if necessary, can await a second Trump term.

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agoddamn · 1 year

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Every time I see the "[character] avoids medical attention" trope I'm stuck with a mental image of the character in question raving about, like, ibuprofen. Tums. Cough drops. "Medical treatment" is a concept that exists on a scale.

#tccc at home #Obi-Wan Kenobi out here like FUCK ICEPACKS ALL MY HOMIES HATE ICEPACKS

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agoddamn · 2 years

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where's the fanfic where the overly logical character is the first one to show up in medical because they understand just how fucked they would be if they blew their knee out by pushing it for the drama

#have you ever known an actual serious athlete/fighter? those people do NOT fuck around with pushing dangerously #tccc at home

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agoddamn · 1 year

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I wanna see more reasonable reactions to the hiding-injury trope--like fury and betrayal.

Cos, here's the thing: if you're in a physical role, and other people depend on you performing in that physical role, you are endangering them by hiding injury. They rely on you to be at 100% and you're 40%? Plans aren't gonna work, things are gonna fall apart, and people are gonna die.

You hide your lacerated arm and it gives out in a moment where you expect normal performance from it? That's entirely on you. A leader failing because they had wildly unrealistic visions of their own capabilities is typically the realm of egotistic villains like Lord Farquaad or doomed second-in-command types. It's a bad thing when those characters sacrifice people because they're not willing to face their own limitations--it should be a bad thing when the hero does the same act.

It's the kind of thing that will always reflect poorly on the peons and underlings, too. Cody would not find Obi-Wan a sad woobie for hiding his wounds, he would be fucking incandescent that Obi-Wan set him up to fail by making his most pivotal resource unusable.

Because there is definitely gonna be a report for that, and the conclusion of the higher-ups will always be, "these soldiers/underlings/support units must be completely worthless if their boss doesn't think they're capable of basic first aid." It's a sign of no cohesion and no trust.

[Obligatory disclaimer that you can write whatever fic you want, I'm just a cranky old bitch.]

[Secondary disclaimer that I'm not talking about, "well what if he didn't realize he was injured!" That's not the conversation; we are talking about the very specific trope of willfully hiding injuries out of some bizarre sense of...guilt? Fear of taking up resources? Responsibility? Inadequacy? I've seen a lot of attempted explanations and they're all bad.]

#tccc at home #this post brought to you by the sobering realization that a coworker is physically not able to back me up #working with her is effectively like working solo #this is also all true for mental capabilities but that's much harder to quantify and easier to understandably misjudge #if you have a hole in your arm it WILL NOT perform to 100% of being an arm and your denial of reality is all on you

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