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Study on training injuries reveals patterns among recruits and officer cadets

Underway said:
I agree. My section PT before Afghanistan included stretcher carry.  Carrying your buddy with all their gear, and your gear over rough terrain is not easy.  I actually changed my workouts to add more free weights so that my grip endurance improved.  Grip strength was fine, but after 5 min of hanging onto that stretcher.... ouch

As seen at about 0:46, it takes a whole community raise a stretcher across rough ground :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkg5Cr2_F18
 
Old Sweat said:
Then why did the army teach me how to carry a casualty on a stretcher on recruit training in the RCA Depot back in 1958?

As I recall, this included loading the casualty onto the stretcher and both two and four person carry, including synchronizing our pace to lessen his discomfort. I also think we also were taught this on OCP Phase 1 in 1960.
 
Old Sweat said:
Then why did the army teach me how to carry a casualty on a stretcher on recruit training in the RCA Depot back in 1958?

Probably someone said "Well, he's not as smart as a musician or a PERI who can do this on their own, so we better give him a hand..."
 
We spent a whole day in basic doing all sorts of stretchery things, including lashing the casualty in and lowering out an upper floor window. More to it than "hands on, prepare to lift".
 
Old Sweat said:
Then why did the army teach me how to carry a casualty on a stretcher on recruit training in the RCA Depot back in 1958?

I like DAP's answer better, but then I have been told that I have a sarcastic sense of humour.

The realistic answer is well put forth by this quoted from a US Army research study in 1998 of "Standard and Alternate Methods of Stretcher
Carriage: Performance, Human Factors, and Cardiorespiratory Responses
".

The requirement to transport casualties is a common soldiering task described in almost all
Army test and evaluation program (ARTEP) manuals as well as in the Soldier's Manual of
Common Tasks. One of the most common ways to transport a wounded or otherwise
incapacitated individual is by stretcher.

That requirement to lift and tote your fellow soldiers was as applicable in the 1950s when you were a young soldier as at any other time.  There may probably have been some greater emphasis placed on stretcher drills in the Canadian Army of the 50s and 60s and maybe even the early 70s due to "National Survival Training" (at least it appears that way to me thinking back to Cornwallis and the amount of time spent on knots, lashings and stretcher handling drills - there was far less emphasis on such when I did CFOCS about a decade later).


Underway said:
I agree. My section PT before Afghanistan included stretcher carry.  Carrying your buddy with all their gear, and your gear over rough terrain is not easy.  I actually changed my workouts to add more free weights so that my grip endurance improved.  Grip strength was fine, but after 5 min of hanging onto that stretcher.... ouch

From that same study

. . . Two-man carriage times to exhaustion were 4 minutes for hand carriage and 26 minutes with the harness. . . .

medicineman said:
Journeyman said:
Well historically, Commonwealth Army musicians tended to also be stretcher-bearers.

/history geek  ;)

So were the PERI's  :nod:

MM

While the use of bandsmen as SBs was generally thought to be the common operational employment of such in Commonwealth armies, when was the last time such was the case in the Canadian military?  I would hazard a guess that it may not have been that regular an occurrence even during the Second World War.

(From a 1952 Canadian Army HQ Historical Section report) http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/rep-rap/doc/ahqr-rqga/ahq047.pdf
35. K.R. (Can.) states that bandsmen will be
trained as stretcher bearers and in first aid to the
wounded (K.R.(Can). 1939, para 686). However, the
number of wounded Canadian soldiers who were attended by
bandsmen - stretcher bearers must be small indeed
. In the
first place, few Canadian units had bands with them in
combat areas. In the second place, most of those units
which did have bandsmen or pipers found it advisable
to hold them out of the forward areas
. The Cape Breton
Highlanders kept their pipers looking after stores in
"B" Echelon; the Essex Scottish used their pipers in "B"
Echelon as general duty personnel; the Irish Regiment of
Canada had their pipers handling baggage in the rear for
"stretcher·bearers were easier to come by than pipers"
.
(376.003(D2): Personal Recollections of Serving Officers).

36. P.P.C.L.I. had a bugle band in Italy and in
North-West Europe. However, the band did not have a
continuous existence: it was more or less reformed every
time the unit went into a rest area. Only the band sergeant
and band corporal were considered permanent. To assure their
permanence both were given comparatively safe duties. When
the battalion returned to action, the bandsmen dispersed,
some to their companies, some to Bn H.Q. defence platoon, and
some to the medical section as stretcher bearers
(Ibid).

37. The R.C.R. bugle band was disbanded before the
battalion left England in 1943 since a band was "not on the
War Establishment of an assault battalion in the invasion of
Sicily" (Galloway, Maj S., 55 Axis (Montreal, 1945) p. 11;-6) •
. Nevertheless, the instruments were "smuggled" ashore in Sicily
and then stored at Campobasso during the long winter campaign
on the Adriatic Front. In June 1944 the band was reformed and
became part of the battalion's life. At a ceremonial
promulgation of sixteen Courts-Martial, the culprits were
drummed out of the regiment to the unhappy beat of the
"Rogue's March". The band also played on happier unit and
corps occasions and claimed to be the first Allied military
band to play in St. Peter's Square in Rome (Ibid: pps.
145-147). During the battle for the airfield at Rimini, the
the band was made into an ammunition carrying detail.
While
bringing ammunition to "D" Company they attacked and cleared
a houseful of Germans who had reoccupied the place after "D"
Company passed through. In so doing, they saved "D" Company
from considerable embarrassment and likely casualties (Ibid:
162, 163). This is one of the few instances where bandsmen
as a group took an active part in the fighting
.

Just as few battalions had bands authorized during the war, so was the situation in the peacetime CF.  Even when the number of full-time bands was greater than it is now, the musical organizations (save perhaps for pipes, bugles and drums that were made up from the existing establishment of the unit) were not part of manoeuvre units and could not be called upon as "spare pricks" to use as GDs to do lifting and toting in jobs such as stretcher bearer.  I would suppose that the same would apply to PERIs.  On the sole occasion (about 40 years ago) that I recall being given a GD as a "stretcher bearer", he was an infantryman, I don't know if he had any musical talent however I had to sign him out from the RSM on a temporary loan card (I'm not joking).

 
Humphrey Bogart said:
Fitness and Healthy Lifestyle.  Wouldn't that be just Grand?

We could easily do it if we wanted to, there is zero will to change; however.

I think there is a will just not in the correct places. However, on another note I don't think the CAF is overly capable of internal change. Removing a triservice basic might be useful but I have seen many soldiers get out of shape of PAT platoons that are run poorly. Filling current slots of basic with combat arms only soldiers with a different fitness progression might be a simpler option than splitting it into land, sea and air. Do they not already do this for phase 2 at Gagetown?
 
Association Between Musculoskeletal Injuries and the Canadian Armed Forces Physical Employment Standard Proxy in Canadian Military Recruits

Introduction

Musculoskeletal injuries (MSKIs) and recruitment are major challenges faced by modern military forces. The Canadian Armed Forces uses a physical employment standard (PES) proxy to determine occupational fitness and job suitability. It is unknown whether the performance on the PES proxy can be also used as predictor of MSKIs. The purpose of this study was to investigate for relationships between age, sex, body composition, aerobic fitness, performance on the Canadian Armed Forces PES proxy (FORCE evaluation), and risk of sustaining a MSKI requiring intervention in the Training Rehabilitation Program (MSKI-TRP1) during Canadian Basic Military Qualification.


Materials and Methods

This was a retrospective analysis of MSKIs in recruits introduced in the Training Rehabilitation Program (TRP1) in 2016 and 2017. A two-tailed t-test and a multivariate stepwise logistic regression were completed to investigate the interrelationships of sex, age, FORCE performance (20 m rushes, sandbag lift, intermittent loaded shuttles, sandbag drag) and health-related characteristics (waist circumference, predicted peak oxygen consumption [V%u02D9O2peak]), and odds for sustaining a MSKI-TRP.


Results

The MSKI-TRP1 intervention rate observed was 4.3%. Rehabilitation duration was an average (SD) of 87 (76) days; nearly 80% of MSKI-TRP were lower body injuries. MSKI-TRP recruits were older, had a lower score on FORCE, and had a larger mean waist circumference and lower V%u02D9
O2peak than non-TRP1 recruits (all P < 0.01). Recruits with performance lower than 1 SD below mean on the 20 m rushes, intermittent loaded shuttle, or sandbag drag were 2.69 (1.89%u20133.83), 2.74 (1.91%u20133.95), and 2.26 (1.52%u20133.37) times more likely to sustain a MSKI-TRP1, respectively (all P < 0.01). Recruits with V%u02D9

O2peak lower than 1 SD below mean were also 2.19 (1.30%u20133.70) times more likely to sustain a MSKI-TRP. Neither sex, age, nor waist circumference impacted the risk of MSKI-TRP1 when controlling for FORCE performance.


Conclusions

The Canadian Armed Forces PES proxy performance can be used to assess the odds of sustaining a MSKI-TRP1 in Canadian military recruit training.


https://academic.oup.com/milmed/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/milmed/usaa011/5831931

(French article)
https://www.connexionfac.ca/Region-Montreal/Ma-Communaute/Journal-Servir/Articles/2020-07-07-Une-longue-etude-qui-porte-ses-fruits.aspx
 
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