PCC Firing Range Hosts Tactical Medical Training

BETHEL�More than 60 law enforcement officers representing 17 agencies received potentially life-saving tactical medical training this month at the Pitt Community College firing range.

On March 25, FBI and Pitt County Sheriff�s Office SWAT instructors teamed with Pitt County Memorial Hospital trauma surgeons and emergency room physicians to teach combat medical techniques that can keep officers wounded in the line of duty alive until they can be treated by medical personnel.

The training, which came days after a shootout left four Oakland police officers dead, included applying tourniquets to gun shot wounds, clearing obstructed airways and stabilizing spinal injuries. There was also a simulation that required officers to provide cover for caregivers while moving a wounded comrade to safety.

FBI Special Agent Tom McAfee helped organize the training exercise and said the life-saving measures taught during the event can be applied to a wide range of emergency situations law enforcement personnel may face.

�Whether you are responding to a mass-casualty event, like Virginia Tech, or a single-car accident in the countryside, these techniques will save lives,� he said.

Taking part in the day-long training exercise at the PCC firing range were agents, deputies and officers from the following organizations: FBI, SBI, ATF, DEA, IRS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Greenville Police Department, Pitt County Sheriff's Office, Wayne County Sheriff's Office, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Virginia State Police, and the S.C. State Constable�s Alliance.

"The Public Safety Training Division at Pitt Community College is heading in the right direction as we expand our normal scope of practice and venture into collaborative training with other entities and organizations," said Jeff Robinson, PCC's Public Safety Training Coordinator.

03/31/2009