Greetings to you, fellow soldier-medics, from the California Army National Guard’s 91W Program Office.  Yeah, I know:  It’s been awhile.  Let’s get you up-to-date.

 

COL Timothy Albertson.  COL Albertson, our medical director, returned safe-and-sound from Iraq.  He was recently selected for promotion to brigadier general and is now serving on the staff of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.  Although his primary military assignment has changed, COL(P) Albertson will stay on as our medical director.

 

LTC Conrad Salinas.  LTC Salinas has also returned safely from Iraq.  LTC Salinas will be taking on an increased role, as medical director for the new part of the 91W transition program that is just now being fielded.   (See below.)

 

CAPT (O-6) Donald Byington, USNR (Ret).  CAPT Byington is well on his way to recovery from open-heart surgery for a valve replacement.  We wish him continued good health and increased energy.

 

SPC Rebecca Love.  SPC Love has moved on to a job that pays her more and travels her less.  And we wonder why she left.  Best wishes for success in the new office.  We’re in the process of hiring a replacement.

 

Just when you thought you knew what your MOS is, the Army is changing it again.  You will soon see a change for the medical career management field from 91-series to 68-series.  If you were 91W the day before, you will be a 68W the next day.  It’s just a number change.  It doesn’t affect MOSQ or change any of the previous rules.  Why is Army doing this?  The Army wants to align the numbering of the enlisted career field to match the numbering of the appropriate officer career field.  Since the various medical branches of the Army are numbered 60-75, we enlisted medical folks get 68.

 

 

The transition program is changing.  The changes aren’t firm yet, but I can tell you what the draft is, based on the conference we attended a few weeks ago in beautiful San Antonio.  For those of you who have completed the transition requirements, you won’t have to retrain to remeet the new transition rules.

 

NREMT-Basic certification remains an on-going requirement.  And here’s where changes start to take place.

 

The old requirements, for most of us, stated that we had to successfully complete either PHTLS or BTLS, plus pass Trauma AIMS.  Trauma AIMS—a 68-hour course—is being deleted.  BTLS as an option is being deleted.  Again, please remember these are drafts—probably the future, but not just yet.

 

The new course is called Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TC3)—a 24-hour course.  The new course will merge with PHTLS (a 16-hour course) and be taught as one 40-hour block.  Having seen the new TC3 curriculum, I think it’s a great thing.  It more directly addresses the chief causes of mortality on today’s (and yesterday’s) battlefield—bad airway control, massive uncontrolled extremity trauma, and tension pneumothorax.  The new curriculum is not finalized yet, and we’re not accredited to teach it yet.  However, we will be submitting our accreditation package in the next couple of days, and we’re planning our future course schedule around it.

 

For those of us who are EMS junkies, we have come up with words and phrases to describe the new TC3 curriculum.  Words like exciting, duh, makes sense, and it’s about time.

 

You keep asking that.  The new course will be a total of 40 classroom hours.  NREMT-B (or higher certification) is a prerequisite.  As you know, though, to maintain your NREMT-B, you must have current CPR for healthcare providers (HCP), plus complete an approved EMT refresher course, plus perform an additional 48 hours of continuing medical education, plus have a skills validation.  Our plan at this point is to change our sustainment training cycle from a 10-day block to an 11-day block, incorporating the new course.  It’ll look something like this, with the intent of continuing to satisfy all your reregistration requirements in one trip to our schoolhouse here at beautiful Camp San Luis Obispo:

 

DAY       1              2              3              4              5              6              7              8              9              10           11

           Travel   CPR      EMT------------ --EMT     PHTLS/--------------------------------PHTLS/   Travel     

                           HCP     refresher        refresher            TC3                                                  TC3

 

 

 

Glad you asked.  You are required to complete the same NREMT-B reregistration requirements that are listed in the above paragraph.  You can complete those requirements on your own, or you can come to our schoolhouse at Camp San Luis Obispo.  On the next page, you’ll see a list of projected class dates, along with a sign-up form.

 

Again, glad you asked.  You probably have a pretty good idea of what training you need.  You know if you have a current NREMT card or not.  You know if you have been through PHTLS/BTLS and Trauma AIMS or not.  You know when you did BNCOC.  If you’re not sure if you’ve met the transition requirements or not, e-mail me. Get us copies of your documents. 

 

Next, once you figure out what training you need, complete the attached registration form to come to our classes.  By the way, we’re not the only show in town.  There are 91W classrooms all over.  Many are listed in ATRRS, the Army’s schools program.  If our class dates don’t work for you, or your unit full-timers or unit leaders have questions, call or e-mail our office and get yourself enrolled in the right classes at the right time for your schedule.  And please share this with any other medics you know.  If your medic buddies didn’t get this newsletter, it’s because their addresses are wrong in SIDPERS.  Your unit full-timers can help you with that.

 

91W Program Office

SFC Brian Bernay

916-854-3203

brian.bernay@ca.ngb.army.mil

Office fax:  916-854-4200 or -3730

 

Camp San Luis Obispo classroom (Bldg 1402)

(The classroom is only manned when we have classes on the ground, for now.  We check the voice mail there regularly, though.)

805-594-6493

DSN 630-6493

Fax:  805-594-6572

 

We are fully accredited by the AMEDD C&S to teach these courses, but we are not completely loaded in ATRRS yet.  We’re doing the enrollments and student tracking with stubby pencils and spreadsheets for now.  Currently our funding, unless you want to send your soldier here on AT status, is in addition to AT.  We cut the orders here, and you do the payroll at home station.  We house them in non-chargeable quarters at Camp SLO.  Since the con mess is closed for now, students are on per diem for the duration of their stay.

 

CALIFORNIA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD

91W TRANSITION AND  SUSTAINMENT PROGRAM

The CAARNG is sponsoring training to help you complete your 91W transition and NREMT reregistration requirements.  Dates are, of course, subject to change.

 

This form must be completed and faxed to 916-854-4200 NLT 30 days prior to the scheduled class date.  Please mark the line next to the class in which you want to enroll.

 

EMT-Basic (includes full EMT-B curriculum, clinical rotations, and NREMT testing).

Prerequisite:  Must have PMOS 91W w/Y2 ASI.  Must have current CPR certification at the healthcare provider level.

___ 7 Jul 05 – 23 Jul 05 (It’s already past 30 days.  If you want this course date, call the office ASAP.)

___ 26 Aug 05 – 11 Sep 05       ___4 Nov 05 – 20 Nov 05          ___6 Jan 05 – 22 Jan 06

___3 Mar 06 – 19 Mar 06        ___5 May 06 – 21 May 06         ___7 Jul 06 – 23 Jul 06
___8 Sep 06 – 24 Sep 06

 

NREMT-B sustainment, including PHTLS/TC3.  Remember:  You must have all your reregistration requirements completed prior to your expiration date.  Failure to maintain your NREMT-B certification may result in involuntary reclassification (AR 40-68).

Prerequisite:  Current NREMT-B certification.

___6 Oct 05 – 16 Oct 05          ___8 Dec 05 – 18 Dec 05           ___2 Feb 06 – 12 Feb 06

___30 Mar 06 – 9 Apr 06        ___20 Apr 06 – 30 Apr 06        ___15 Jun 06 – 25 Jun 06

___3 Aug 06 – 13 Aug 06        ___17 Aug 06 – 27  Aug 06  

 

 

Soldier’s name________________________________________

 

Soldier’s SSN___________________________

 

Soldier’s phone number____________________________

 

Soldier’s e-mail address______________________________

 

Soldier’s mailing address________________________________________

 

                                            ________________________________________

 

Soldier’s signature__________________________________________

/////////////////////////////////////////////////For unit leadership only//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

____  I request ADT orders, in addition to AT, for this soldier.

 

____  I approve this soldier going to this training in lieu of AT.

 

Company CO/1SG printed name___________________________________

 

Company CO/1SG signature______________________________________