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Old 03-28-2012, 18:04   #16
TF Kilo
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Originally Posted by Odin21 View Post
A question for those medics far more experienced than I- how did the Ranger Medic Handbook packing list come to be? Is there a study behind it? It seems that many of you adamantly disagree and I am inclined to go with your advice over a list in the back of a book. However, if there is this much negative blow back from you guys who obviously know your stuff, I am just wondering who came up with that list and why.
Any packing list in any manual is a basis for planning. Nothing more, nothing less. What I carried as a Ranger Medic varied depending on the mission... more splinting materials and such if we were doing jump coverage, more of this that and the other thing for other mission types.

Not to step on any toes here, but if anyone uses the packing list in the back of the book for anything other than an initial basis to restock their bag IE "THIS IS WHAT IT SHALL HAVE NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS" then a headdesk moment is in order.

Even the medical loadout of Ranger platoons varied depending upon the mission. More distributed assets amongst the platoon means more assets the platoon has, that the medic doesn't have to carrry. 1000cc bag w/ IV kit in a baggie, attached to the ruck frame @ the kidney pad...

As for your molle... Your job is being a medic, and you don't have medical supplies on your person? What happens if your aid bag gets left/ditched/blown the hell up in your absence?

I had 2 SAW pouches to my front packed top to bottom each with "in sequence of use" med gear. 6 mags hung out at my left front, since I am right handed.
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Old 03-29-2012, 10:54   #17
Odin
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This is exactly correct. I would caution the OP to not load himself down with med supplies, and I would classify an additional pouch of supplies as being loaded down. Part of being a good medic is the constant anticipation of your gear and med supplies being correctly tailored to your mission. When your mission changes, so should your setup. I never encountered a time when I was far from an aid bag, thus an extra pouch would not be necessary. I also did not like having anything bulky on my chest area because when I needed to work on someone, it would get in the way. I would throw a TQ in each of my shoulder pockets but that was it. Its your setup, but when you consider your role as a shooter first, then you should be putting more essential items in the unused space.

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Originally Posted by Surgicalcric View Post
I dont understand the fascination with medics carrying an ass ton of medical supplies on their armor. A few TQs I understand (CUF) but your vest should be for bullets, bombs (grenades), and comms not cric kits, kerlix and ace wraps or OALES.

Trim the fat, put it in a bag (fanny pack or M9-style), and have a larger bag for MCIs/resupply handy in a vehicle if mounted or carry it if the mission will lead you away from vehicles.

There is nothing like having so much crap on your person that you become immobile or cant get out of the vehicle quickly.
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Old 04-04-2012, 21:06   #18
miclo18d
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What I Carried

I put a pic of the kit I wore on raids in 2006.

The only thing medical is the 3 pouches in between the pack and the armor.

The three pouches are on a belt that me and the medics on the other team at our base designed and had haji-built. It has a red cross on it and each pouch is labeled as to what is in it if I got hit. The 3 pouches were: an Airway pouch with a cric kit, various sized J-tubes, ET tube and my laryngoscope. In another was a few blow out kits with extra kerlix and the final carried 2x500ml bags and my morphine. No more than about 5lbs.

Just the stuff to secure an airway, stop a really bad bleeder that the individual kits couldn't handle and to give someone a bolus and pain meds if needed, before my aidbag could get to me.

My aid bag was usually on an ATV we would ride off the ramp and use as security along with extra ammo.

The rest of my kit was ALL mission essential, and you can see the gate breaching charge just above the butt stock of the M4 (ended up using it to blow the ordinance and a motorcycle we found on the OBJ)

Think of your stuff as you would a survival kit. A little on your person, some on your kit, and the heavy stuff in your ruck.

EDIT::: I was just looking at some pics of me wearing it. It actually had a small 4th pouch that had an elastic slit in the top. The pouch was for rubber gloves that you could pull out like kleenex.
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Last edited by miclo18d; 04-05-2012 at 06:53. Reason: Adding Info
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Old 05-16-2012, 22:16   #19
foxymedic
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Pouch in photo

Odin,
To answer the specific question you asked, that is the North American Rescue NAR-4 Chest Pouch (CCRK). My unit got us these while we were in Afghanistan. We ran civilian and military ambulances and this pouch was entirely too bulky for that application. It might work all right for dismounted ops. The supplies inside are based off of the TC3 guidelines and there are several TQs in outside pockets. Again, I think this might work well for foot patrols especially where the troops you are supporting might not have IFAKs. Also, that CTOMS Frontline kit with the mag shingle might be better. But, I have no experience with that pouch.
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Old 09-04-2012, 00:18   #20
fritzscorner
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Just to ad some info I know its several months late from the OP date...

At rfi big army issues the TAB I think its called. Its a chest rig / rack system. Can be clipped onto your iotv or plate carrier. Has 8 slots for magazines, 6 ar 15 mag slots, and 2 SDM mag slots one on each side. Back side has two zipper pouches and a velcro flap pouch in middle.

If you decide to use it as a medic you wont have need for SDM mags. You could easily fit small amount of medical stuff in those pouches. etb/ace bandage, kerlex, combat gauze, tq. It would be a snug fit would probably be best to put it all in zip lock baggy and stuff in. Leave a tab of tape for something to grab and pull it out easily while wearing gloves. Better then adding more pouches to your kit I think.

I just put two TQs and trauma shears my self. With aidbag, someone carrying a CLS bag and each joe having an ifak plus tqs in top shoulder pockets I dont feel the need to weigh myself down with extra shit.

Last edited by fritzscorner; 09-04-2012 at 01:35.
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Old 09-08-2012, 21:49   #21
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Weight?

I saw an article that showed the weight that each member of a squad carried . Two soldiers carried 119 Lbs. The most weight carried The Medic was one of the two. Tom Kelly.
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Old 05-31-2013, 12:34   #22
Marvin Blank
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Late to the party, but here is my opinion.

I understand what a lot of you are saying about your front being only for bullets and grenades, etc. However, I disagree for a couple of reasons.

As a medic, you are often walking around without an aid bag, and never know when something bad is gonna happen (shura, district center, 200 meters from an mrap playing with kids). It's not practical to think you are always gonna have an aid bag on you for every second outside the wire.

Also, with care under fire, you need to be able to do minimal interventions on short notice.....often in situations not conducive to pulling an aid bag off your back, and opening it up, and then packing it back up and loading in back on your back. Or, if you have to move to someone (while under fire, be it running behind a low wall, climbing thru a rear gun hatch) you often are just trying to get them to a better position, and don't want a big assed bag on your back (but might want more than a TQ if you have a spare minute or two behind a wall as CAS goes crazy, or your TS tells you to hold fast while he maneuvers on the shitheads (since you are still "under fire", but are relatively safe staying put)

Therefore, I keep a medical pouch on my kit to work out of without going to the aid bag. HOWEVER, DO NOT SUFFER THE MEDIC CURSE OF OVERPACKING. It is a small pouch. I have ONE c gauze, one h and h compressed gauze, one narp needle d cath, one cric kit, one npa, one pair of gloves. Elsewhere on my kit, like everyone, I have scissors, tqs (I carried 4 as the medic, so i Could use them for others without using up any in case I needed self aid), and a sharpie. Stuffed into the little Velcro pocket on my front flap (not all kits have this, but I believe the mbav does) was a halo dressing, which has 2 in it.

Very compact (magazine pouch size), and able to handle one gunshot/facial trauma/small packing job/basic airway. I considered this part of my assault bag when I packed the bag, since I would always have the mag pouch on me (ie, didn't need an additional crick kit in the bag).

Again, as long as you keep it minimalist, it is very helpful and efficient, and I felt comfortable going to a patient during care under fire phase and the initial tccc phase (still under threat or non effective ish fire and needing to move to better position) without an aid bag if speed or keeping a low profile dictated it.....since if that little pouch couldn't handle it, it wasn't going to be something i should be doing under fire anyways.
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Old 05-31-2013, 22:50   #23
bandaidbrand
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Originally Posted by Marvin Blank View Post
Late to the party, but here is my opinion.

I understand what a lot of you are saying about your front being only for bullets and grenades, etc. However, I disagree for a couple of reasons.

As a medic, you are often walking around without an aid bag, and never know when something bad is gonna happen (shura, district center, 200 meters from an mrap playing with kids). It's not practical to think you are always gonna have an aid bag on you for every second outside the wire.

Also, with care under fire, you need to be able to do minimal interventions on short notice.....often in situations not conducive to pulling an aid bag off your back, and opening it up, and then packing it back up and loading in back on your back. Or, if you have to move to someone (while under fire, be it running behind a low wall, climbing thru a rear gun hatch) you often are just trying to get them to a better position, and don't want a big assed bag on your back (but might want more than a TQ if you have a spare minute or two behind a wall as CAS goes crazy, or your TS tells you to hold fast while he maneuvers on the shitheads (since you are still "under fire", but are relatively safe staying put)

Therefore, I keep a medical pouch on my kit to work out of without going to the aid bag. HOWEVER, DO NOT SUFFER THE MEDIC CURSE OF OVERPACKING. It is a small pouch. I have ONE c gauze, one h and h compressed gauze, one narp needle d cath, one cric kit, one npa, one pair of gloves. Elsewhere on my kit, like everyone, I have scissors, tqs (I carried 4 as the medic, so i Could use them for others without using up any in case I needed self aid), and a sharpie. Stuffed into the little Velcro pocket on my front flap (not all kits have this, but I believe the mbav does) was a halo dressing, which has 2 in it.

Very compact (magazine pouch size), and able to handle one gunshot/facial trauma/small packing job/basic airway. I considered this part of my assault bag when I packed the bag, since I would always have the mag pouch on me (ie, didn't need an additional crick kit in the bag).

Again, as long as you keep it minimalist, it is very helpful and efficient, and I felt comfortable going to a patient during care under fire phase and the initial tccc phase (still under threat or non effective ish fire and needing to move to better position) without an aid bag if speed or keeping a low profile dictated it.....since if that little pouch couldn't handle it, it wasn't going to be something i should be doing under fire anyways.
Great advice, thank you. In regards to the bolded part, are you just carrying the cric for the case where you aren't with your main bag, or with your more advanced training would you be comfortable doing one in "non effective ish fire" as you describe later.

From a 68s point of view: For "one day" patrols (without a ruck) I was forced to use a walk bag with a skedco inside along with fluids, and my interventions in the side pouches because we were in very steep terrain. I used an extra IFAK on my plate carrier with essentially the same stuff you described in case I had to ditch the bag to climb to someone. Because I had to use an even larger profile bag than normal the extra front pouch helped when I had to lay on them initially.

Edit: I really think you need smokes right in the front with your ammo as some of the previous gentlemen said. No experience with frags.

Last edited by bandaidbrand; 05-31-2013 at 22:54.
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