Day two I attended Greg Ellifritz’s terrorist bomb response block, Eli Miller’s EDC Medicine block, and helped Dr. House with his Living with the Snub Revolver block. Here’s a summary and the high points.
Sunday Block 1 – Greg Ellifritz
Greg’s block on Armed Citizen Response to the Terrorist Bombing was a real eye opener. He starts the block with a very detailed look at the history of the use of bombings with active shooters since 1928.The two have always gone hand in hand, apparently. The motivations of most bombers was also discussed. He then moves to a relatively detailed look at the components and methods used to make explosive devices (initiators, booster, payload). The ease of manufacture of homemade devices, commercial explosives, and what this stuff actually looks like (no recipes though). Following were some videos of terrorist bombers seconds before (and after) detonating their devices, and the blast radius and average times (Israeli study) you have before a suicide bomber chooses his target and detonates. Greg has written pretty extensively on this topic on his blog and I encourage you to seek this info out. Here’s the high points:
- Do not touch a suspected device
- If you can see the bomb/explosion, you’re too close.
- 50% live/die line for most man carried devices is 50ft (is your shooting up to the task for a headshot? body shots can set off unstable home-made devices), 200-400m deadly frag zone
- You won’t know how the bomb is triggered
- You won’t recognize the bomb
- Plan on a secondary device
- Be aware of the bomber’s handlers
- You’re (I’m) likely not good enough to see it coming, so be prepared to just get away from the primary bombing site AFTER it detonates.
- If you want to help, the best thing might be to move the injured to an open space, away from vehicles and parking lots, where you can assist in the aide. Be wary of obvious places that are crowded with lots of hiding places for secondary devices
- Within pistol range is within bomb range and you might die.
- Staying at the primary detonation site opens you up for the secondary, and you might die.
- This sort of thing will get more frequent stateside in the coming decades.
Sunday Block 2 – Eli Miller – EDC Trauma Discussion
This was an informal discussion of EDC and vehicle trauma kits. Eli fielded questions and invited the students to get their personal and vehicle trauma kits for critique. He recently returned from a stint in Iraq in a field hospital and has a lot of recent and relevant trauma experience. I’ll sort of blast out a bunch of notes that I wrote.
- Ceasing major hemorrhage should be priority
- Tourniquets go high and tight, most failures of application of TQs is from it being too loose before the windlass is wound.
- ‘sterile’ and field medicine don’t really jive. The patient just had metal tear through them. Let IV antibiotics care for that, just get the bleeding stopped.
- TCCC tactical combat casualty care.
- Deep packing and direct pressure
- Gorilla tape and wrappers make great improvised chest seals. wrap 10′ around an old credit card to have a flat pack of versatile tape. White medical tape doesn’t stick to dirty, bloody, hairy stuff so don’t waste your time.
- chest seals work. So do the wrappers of other medical items with gorilla tape.
- For most lay first-responders , the chest decompression needle is not worth the risk.
- Tourniquets are only worth a damn if they have a windlass. SOFTT-Wide, or the North American Rescue – CAT are the only two he’s comfortable with recommending. The RATS and SWAT are rubberbands, and not TQs.
- He likes the Frog.Pro ankle rig for EDC carry.
- He likes the small rescue hook for clearing clothing. NEVER use a pocket knife because stabbing your patient isn’t ideal.
- Israeli Bandages or OLEAS bandages for vehicle kits, and the H&H mini compression bandage for ankle carry.
- Combat Gauze, Celox or the other impregnated hemostatic gauze are great. If they expire, they’re still gauze.
- despite what you heard, tampons still aren’t good for stopping leaks. Tampons are built to absorb blood, packing a wound is a way to get direct pressure to the vasculature AT THE BLEED site and give something to clot onto. Those are not the same thing. A bullet wound can take 2 rolls of gauze.
- A sharpie in your kit can help you pack wounds if the holes are too small for a finger.
- Gauze is cheap, carry a lot.
- Always pack a wound without losing contact with the gauze. It’s easy to accidentally rip the gauze you’ve packed out of the wound if it catches on a piece of velcro or something.
- Most hemostatics are good 2-5 years beyond their stated shelf life, though eventually they WILL expire.
- Boo-Boo kits and trauma kits should be distinct and separate.
- Civil War era ‘binding’ is still very much a useful technique for junction wounds (Hip and shoulder, think blackhawk down). You basically pack as much as you can, then put a big wad of gauze on top of that, then bring the knee up to the chest to increase pressure at wound site. Use ratchet straps or rope to keep that limb pinned to the torso and increase local pressure at wound site.
- Always pack a wound, even after a TQ, to prevent further tissue damage and immobilize locally destroyed bone.
- Buy quality medical shears. They’re worth the expense.
- Headlamps in your trauma kit are invaluable.
- “Life over Limb”
If you want to support Eli, you can buy his poster (see FaceBook inlay)
Sunday Block 3-4 – Dr. Sherman House – Living with the Snub Revolver
To round out my weekend, I volunteered to help Sherman run his ‘Living with the Snub’ block. In it he gave some wisdom on keeping small revolvers running and some building block drills to run them efficiently.
- The Dejammer and an old tooth brush are two tools to take with you when you shoot your revolvers. Keep un-burned powder from under the ejection star, and poke out expanded and stuck brass.
- Revolvers are tolerant of neglect, Semi-Autos are tolerant of abuse. The revolver that’s in Grandma’s drawer likely still runs like the day it was put away 40 years ago.
- Some ‘best practices’ with revolvers regarding reloads and manipulations
- Building block drills, shot the retired LAPD course, and a class walkback drill on steel to build confidence.
- Don’t worry about ammo as much with a snub, be concerned with if the ammo hits to the top of the front sight post.
- WadCutters make great defensive ammo
The weekend was over too quickly. It was a whirlwind of bonding, brotherhood, and celebration. I’m truly honored to be a part of this, and inspired by my peers. Thank you to everyone who came and supported the cause. If you didn’t come, hopefully I’ll see you all next time around. There isn’t a more noble pursuit. Train Hard and Be Dangerous.
Mark
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