Queens National Guard Soldiers -- Sgt. 1st Class Alfred Luttman and Spc. Jasmine Owens- finish Army School

Queens New York Army National Guard members video interviews are available

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New York Army National Guard Specialist Jasmin Owens training as a Combat Lifesaver on Saturday, June 21.

LATHAM, NY (06/24/2014)(readMedia)--  Two Queens, N.Y. residents --Sgt. 1st Class Alfred Luttman, Spc. Jasmine Owens --are among 70 New York Army National Guard troops who recently graduated from the New York Army National Guard's Combat Lifesavers Course.

 The New York Army National Guard's 106th Regional Training Institute (RTI) taught the course, which included life-saving procedures like using combat application tourniquets, opening airways, treating sucking chest wounds, using combat gauzes and employing different casualty-carrying methods.

Video of the two Soldiers talking about the experience can be found here: 

www.dvidshub.net/video/345219/spc-jasmine-owens-new-york-army-national-guard-soldiers-complete-combat-lifesaver-training 

and here:

www.dvidshub.net/video/345216/sfc-alfred-luttman-new-york-army-national-guard-soldiers-complete-combat-lifesaver-training

The video can be downloaded by establishing an account with the Defense Visual Information Distribution System.

"This is what saves Soldiers' lives," said Luttman, a member of the 442nd Military Police Company. "These techniques are very helpful. It's something we can take back to our units and teach our other Soldiers. You know, it's beneficial to everyone."

The course built her self-assurance, said Owens, who also belongs the 442nd Military Police Company.

"I really feel confident that after this course, if I ever have to do some of the stuff we learned, that I'll be less nervous, she said. "I definitely learned that a good (combat lifesaver) has to be persistent and to stay motivated no matter what."

Combat Lifesavers are non-medical Soldiers who provide life-saving measures as a secondary duty if their primary or combat missions allow. The Combat Lifesaver is a bridge between the self-aid/buddy-aid or first aid training given to all Soldiers during basic training and the advanced medical training given to the combat medic.

"CLS soldiers are typically the first responders, and if something happens to the medic on patrol, then the CLS is going to be the one to take care of your soldiers," said Staff Sgt. Dara Cunningham, a CLS instructor with the 106th RTI and Plattsburgh, N.Y. resident.

This isn't just a "check-the-box" training event for the soldiers who attend the combat lifesaver course, stressed Sgt. 1st Class Lamont Pugh, the 106th RTI medical branch course manager. Trainers intensify the training by using computerized mannequins that simulate casualties, he explained.

The Soldiers practice life-saving techniques on the mannequins, which are laid out on litters inside the 106th RTI's medical simulator. The mannequins are designed to replicate a range of life functions, and appear to cry out in pain, breathe, blink and even bleed, said Pugh, of Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

"There are certain conditions that you just can't replicate," Pugh said. "However, we found that if you make the training challenging enough, that when a soldier goes to battle, they won't freak out as much when they are confronted with somebody who is injured."

The instructors exposed the troops to many different scenarios, Luttman said. While the mannequins aren't real, they're very life-like, he added.

"It was definitely helpful," Luttman said of the realism. "One Soldier actually saw the breathing, and kind of got nervous and jumped back a little."

Cunningham, who deployed to Iraq as a combat medic in 2004, saw first-hand the life-saving skills of combat lifesavers.

"They would come in with the patients that they had already treated, and they would help us to continue to treat the patient," she recalled. "There were some soldiers who could have died if it hadn't been for the (combat lifesavers) who did the initial treatment."

That benefits of combat lifesaver training can also extend to civilians, who National Guard troops work with and encounter during emergencies, Luttman stressed. He's been called up for emergencies like Hurricane Sandy, and he provided security in New York City following the 9-11 attacks.

Combat lifesaver training would've come in handy then, Luttman reflected.

"9-11 was the perfect example," he said. "We would see civilians collapse, and stuff like that. Back then I wasn't CLS-qualified. Looking back, that would've been an essential and vital skill to have."

The course is geared toward first-time learners and also Soldiers who need to recertify as combat lifesavers.

"We actually learned things here that we didn't learn during the CLS course in Basic Combat Training," said Owens. "The simulator really helped me, but the instructor's really made the course very clear and helped me to retain the information I was learning