Return to U.S. Army Task Force Southern Europe, Africa

VICENZA, Italy – More than 1,000 soldiers from U.S. Army units across Europe, including 173rd Airborne Brigade and U.S. Army Southern European Task Force Africa (SETAF-AF), along with partner foreign soldiers, gathered at Caserma Del Din to earn the coveted Expert Soldier, Infantryman, and Medic Badges. campaign, also known as “E3B”.

E3B is a grueling test with several graded tasks completed over a one-week period. This is the combination of the Expert Infantryman Badge, Expert Field Medical Badge, and Expert Soldier Badge. This year’s E3B is hosted by the 173rd Airborne Brigade and includes Soldiers from across Europe, including partners and allies from Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain.

One of the most difficult paths for E3B is the Field Expert Medical Badge(EFMB) tactical combat casualty care (TCCC).

“The TCCC pathway is the pinnacle of EFMB,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class James D. Miller, combat medical specialist, 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade, and TCCC pathway noncommissioned officer in charge. “It shows your ability to care for the injured, from the moment of injury until evacuation.”

The TCCC was born when a Naval Special Warfare biomedical research effort was launched after the realization that extremity hemorrhage, one of the leading causes of preventable death on the battlefield, was not treated by an easily available and very effective intervention: the tourniquet. After its implementation, the TCCC provided lifesaving capabilities to injured warfighters by limiting further casualties and ensuring mission success on the battlefield.

“What we’re looking for is good medicine, making sure that what you’re doing is what should be done by the book, but also in a medical sense,” Miller said. “This particular path really demands perfection. You have someone’s life in your hands and any incident can cost them their life.

For this pathway, participants must be evaluated on their ability to treat multiple patients simultaneously, while ensuring life-saving interventions and rapid evacuation. During this assessment, candidates must complete all TCCC tasks including treatment of massive hemorrhage, airway management, breathing management, circulation management, circulation management, management of hypothermia, a detailed physical examination and completion of a TCCC card. All of this must be performed on all simulated victims. Considered the most difficult route for the EFMB, it demands a lot from candidates.

“I don’t think it’s an opinion,” Miller said. “If you look at the statistics, this path is where candidates receive the most ‘NO-GOs’.”

Candidates must perform TCCC on three casualties, achieve “GO” on all nine critical tasks and receive at least 10 of 12 “GO” on non-critical tasks. If they don’t complete all of this within an hour and 45 minutes, they receive a “NO-GO” for the entire route.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. John A. Zarella, health services administrator assigned to 2nd Cavalry Regimentis competing for his EFMB and discussed the stress of the TCCC pathway.

“Staying focused is the hardest part of this path,” Zarella said. “You can memorize everything for this event, but once you do it and time passes, you start to forget certain steps.”

“The most important thing is that patients survive, by first stopping the bleeding, controlling the airway so the patient can breathe,” said U.S. Army Sgt. William C. Weirough, a combat medical specialist and one of the TCCC evaluators, assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Support Battalion. “You need to be on top of your game and confident in your ability to treat all victims in order of life-threatening injuries, but also in a timely manner. »

Weirough reflected on when he had to take this path to earn his own EFMB in 2022.

“I was confident. I went in with the mentality that I know this; This is my job, and it must be a perfect path,” he said. “You have to think he’s a real patient. If you get a “GO,” well, you just saved a life; but if you get a “NO-GO”, you lose a life”

Sgt. Daniel Pena, a combat medic assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, another EFMB track leveler, received his EFMB badge in 2023.

“The first time I did it, I failed,” Pena said. “On my second attempt, I succeeded. I was super excited and did my 12 mile ruck the next day as a final assessment.

The TCCC pathway truly showcases the skills and know-how of the U.S. Army medical field. It tests the fundamentals of the TCCC and the speed of the candidates, but also their caution when treating three injured people.

“It’s a good path. It truly tests your skills as a medic,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Wendell B. Rightmire, combat medic assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and EFMB competitor. “As long as you have a good grasp of your TCCC fundamentals, all you need to do is memorize the order of events.”

With testing week starting today, all practices and lessons learned will be put to the test as this year’s candidates seek to achieve the prestigious EFMB.

“If you’re an infantryman, engineer or cavalry scout, if you have a medic on your team and they wear that badge on their chest, that says a lot,” Miller said. “They represent the small percentage of those who have earned their badge to become the expert in their field.”

About E3B

This year’s E3B is hosted by the 173rd Airborne Brigade and includes Soldiers from across Europe, including partners and allies from Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain. E3B creates experts at all levels, across all organizations, increasing the readiness and lethality of Soldiers, teams, squads and platoons, transforming the force into professionals, while emphasizing commitment to development individual of each soldier.

Find more articles, videos and photos from E3B Europe on:

About SETAF-AF

SETAF-AF provides US Africa Command And US Army Europe and Africa a dedicated headquarters to synchronize Army activities in Africa and scalable crisis response options in Africa and Europe.

Follow SETAF-AF on:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn & DVID