Day 37: Paintball Commandos

When I was down at BYU, some of my roommates and our apartment complex neighbors got into laser tag. A bunch of grown men would go down once a week and run around shooting at each other. Looking back it is funny how seriously we would take it. I remember sitting around with some of the other guys strategizing and planning our attacks. Ultimately, all of our planning was for naught as we were consistently beaten by a bunch of 12 year old kids every week. It's funny how easily guys are entertained--I guess we never really grow up.

Today reminded me of the college days some, although it was paintballs we were shooting instead of a laser gun. Over the last several days we have been taking part in an advanced trauma course. The purpose of the course is to become more proficient in advanced life saving skills that would be used in the field rather than in the hospital setting. This morning we were able to get our hands dirty so to speak. We each had a simulated patient who had both legs amputated, a gunshot wound to the chest, and any other injury they could think to throw at us. In full body armor, we had to tie on turniquots, dress wounds, put in breathing tubes, etc., while the whole time being distracted by smoke and "gunshots" all around us. It was a pretty good time.


Then this afternoon we topped it all off by going out and playing paintball. The scenario was as follows: There are 2 casualties in a downed helicopter. The enemy surrounds you. You must recover, treat, and transport your patients while still fighting off the enemy. The pictures below show you how things went down.

Somehow, we rescued the casualties and we all made it back alive. In reality we probably all would have died--we make pretty good medical personnel but lousy soldiers. Oh well, hopefully paintballs will be the most dangerous weapon I will face over the next year.