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Behind the Secret Curtain of the U.S. Military’s "Goat Lab"

SOFREP_Live_Tissue_Training

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In the darkness, the SOF medic can’t see because the flashing strobe has taken his night adapted eyesight away. He blindly feels slowly and methodically along the body for the exit wound behind the back. Then he feels it, the warm blood from the bullet wound touches his fingers and heightens his senses, a little gush with every heart beat pushes blood out of the gaping hole.

The gunfight in the background has been muted as far as he’s concerned, He’s only committed to saving the life of his teammate right now. He can feel the warm spit hit his face in the darkness as someone yells “Ten mikes to extract!” He slowly nods his head and feels for a pulse. He gets a steady thump (pause), thump (pause), thump; not quite as fast and weak as it was in the beginning; his friend has stabilized for now,

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Comments

Join our community. To comment on this article please join/login. Here's a sample of the comments on this post.

  • SFDocGuy

    PETA has been trying to get rid of LTT for years, so I can't say I'm surprised about this.  Regardless, it's a sad day.  There is absolutely no substitute for LTT.  Nothing else comes close right now, including any mannequins that are currently being used (and I've used a few).  Politicians and civilians should keep their opinions to themselves when it comes to training for combat, unless they're willing to get into the fight.

  • hemsparamedic

    Former 0000-8404 HM3 and current paramedic specialist on an Advanced Life Support  intercept unit in DE. I taught and coordinated the first (that I know of) SEAL-SDV Team EMT and paramedic programs specifically  for NSWG-1 from 1994-1999 taught at the teams within compound walls  (you can have shiply verify this.) Ty Woods (RIP dude) darrel moore, walt disney, rick winters, Jason Mullaney..etc  were all students of mine. I can tell you this:  live tissue training is the best way to prepare special operators for trauma care. I can also tell you that the companies  that make the manaquins (sim-man, trauma-man) are in it for the money and let me tell you folks  those mother fuckers are making a shit ton of money, In addition, per EMS industry standard, THEY are funding most of the research that finds in favor of using simulated injuries instead of actual injuries. you do the math. The bottom line is that any data that comes out from those kind of  studies has to be looked at very closely because most of them support the military buying $75,000 manaquins (per unit price)  In otherwords there is some shady shit going down just to make a buck.

  • LauraWalkerKC

    A baaaad idea? Fort Bragg to stop using goats in medical training    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/15/fort-bragg-to-stop-using-goats-in-medical-training/#ixzz2I9TKs4Qz   Somewhere a special someone is rolling his eyes.  If you can still do that in heaven :)

  • Old PH2

     @DRevis Hey no worries, that was many years ago, 33 to be exact.  Times are vastly different.  One thing I've learned over the years, just 'cause we "always used to do it that way, "don't mean we can't learn a new way.  Keep asking questions, the guys on this site will do their best to answer them.   

  • DRevis

     @Old PH2 Yeah, I responded emotionally and didn't feel great about that. Thanks for responding.