Photo By Sgt. Anthony Jones | A Ukrainian combat training center staff member shows Sgt. Mitchell Hastings, a medic...... read more read more Photo By Sgt. Anthony Jones | A Ukrainian combat training center staff member shows Sgt. Mitchell Hastings, a medic from Oklahoma City assigned to 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, how Ukrainian medics use ropes to secure and move wounded soldiers after U.S. medics demonstrated how to use the ropes to make harnesses for vehicle gunners training at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, near Yavoriv, Ukraine, on Feb. 10. (Photo by Sgt. Anthony Jones, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team) see less | View Image Page

Training at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center is not just about shooting AKMs and throwing hand grenades.



For Ukrainian units who may face combat around the globe, it is about exchanging ideas and developing critical skills that will keep them and their fellow soldiers alive.



When the 1st Battalion, 28th Mechanized Infantry Brigade arrived at the IPSC, near Yavoriv, Ukraine, they approached their American partners at the Joint Multinational Training Group – Ukraine and asked them to help develop a way to rescue wounded vehicle gunners.



A creative answer came from Sgt. Russell Blevins, a medic with 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Oklahoma Army National Guard.



“The rotational battalion is very concerned with getting gunners out of armored vehicles without hurting them even more,” said Blevins, a Broken Arrow, Oklahoma resident who is a civilian emergency room technician in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the U.S., vehicle extraction techniques are taught in EMT, police and fire training and, in the National Guard, we have people with that experience, he explained.



Blevins said his EMT experience helped him to think about different ways to rescue wounded soldiers, but the tricky part was coming up with a solution the average Ukrainian unit could easily replicate.



“They were having trouble getting people out of damaged BMPs,” Blevins said. “I thought, ‘What do we have and what do they have?’ They have rope.”



With his materials identified, Blevins worked with fellow National Guardsmen to repurpose a Swiss seat, a rope harness usually used for rappelling and air assaults, as a make-shift gunner’s harness similar to

those U.S. Soldiers use in their tactical vehicles.



Using a gunner’s harness has saved many lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Blevins. It serves two roles: first it keeps the gunner inside the vehicle during a mine or improvised explosive device blast, or a roll over, secondly, it serves as a quick way to pull a wounded gunner out of the turret of a damaged vehicle, speeding up the time it takes to rescue a soldier when seconds count.



After making and testing a harness, Blevins took his idea to his Ukrainian counterparts at the IPSC’s combat training center. He and another National Guard medic demonstrated how to make and implement Swiss seats as gunners’ harnesses.



The demonstration was met with both excitement and apprehension.

One of the Ukrainian trainers, who wished to only be identified as “Doc”, as he was a doctor before joining the army, was deeply interested in finding innovative ways to help save soldiers’ lives, but some of the other combat training center staff expressed concern, saying soldiers would not want to wear the rope seats because they are uncomfortable.



“When it is uncomfortable versus saving your life if you’re blown up,” Blevins said. “It’s better to be uncomfortable and alive than not.”



Doc, who was inspired to join the army after attending the Euromaidan protests in 2013 and 2014, said there are many different safety options for gunners in the army, but not all options are available at all times. He said the Swiss seat method is a good solution because it relies on ordinary and simple supplies that are easy to come by, rather than specially made equipment that can be costly.



After seeing the harness demonstration, Doc took the ropes and showed the U.S. medics various ways he and other Ukrainian medics use them to rescue wounded soldiers.



Sgt. Mitchell Hastings, another National Guard medic who works as an emergency room technician in Oklahoma City, said the meeting and the demonstrations produced good ideas for both the U.S. and Ukrainian trainers.



“It went really well,” Hastings said. “We were able to brainstorm and develop an understanding of what we both need to help save lives.”