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LONGARE, Italy — As part of the unit’s international partnership, a 7th Civil Support Command civil affairs unit conducted military to military training with doctors, medics, physicians and first responders from the Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross here Feb. 5 and 6.
The M2M training, hosted by A Company, 457th Civil Affairs Battalion, 361st Civil Affairs Brigade from Vicenza, Italy, was focused on medical and disaster response. The two-day training event included a demonstration of various methods to evacuate and move casualties in a hostile or peacetime environment and culminated with Situational Training Exercise lanes. The lanes combined situational awareness with medical evaluation and evacuation.
“This was a very informative and instructive event in which we were faced with two different medical treatment techniques, American and Italian,” said Lt. Mauro Baratto, an instructor for the Italian military from Padova, Italy. “We’ve learned a lot from your techniques, and you have learned a lot from our techniques.”
For the first round of M2M training, the civil affairs Soldiers focused on Combat Life Saver training a year ago, and for the second round of M2M training, the Italian military built on these CLS skills by providing instruction for this year’s training.
This learning process will help tremendously to increase the life expectancy of someone injured on or off the battlefield, Lieutenant Baratto said.
Five local national instructors at the Longare conference facility center provided the training to about 15 civil affairs Soldiers and 25 members of the Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross.
“I think it is very important that we train together with other armies and Military Corps to build cooperation, especially during peacetime so that together our combined efforts will help us understand how different working techniques can be used to complete the mission” said Capt. Luciano Prestipino, a liaison officer for Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross, 5th Mobilization Center in Verona, Italy.
As the doctors, medics, first responders and civil affairs personnel honed their
medical and crisis training techniques, they continued to strengthen and build on their international partnership, creating a much stronger bond.
“This was an amazing opportunity, and I think everyone learned something,” said Capt. Timothy Byrne, the executive officer of the 457th CA Bn. “It has been a great opportunity to work on common medical skills and see how difficult that can be with a language barrier. We look forward to doing this again next year.”
