presorted standard us postage paid permit #88 enfield, ct

Combat Medical
Advanced Skills
Summer Training
The Massachusetts National Guard Regional
Training Institute, in cooperation with 126
Brigade Support Battalion, conducted Combat
Medical Advanced Skills Training at Camp
Edwards during Annual Training 2007. This new
30-hour course is required of all combat medic
Soldiers.
According to 1st Sgt. Dan Patterson, Charlie
Company, 126th Brigade Support Battalion, 100
percent of Soldiers passed the course and six
CMAST trainers were certified. Patterson reports
that course participants will be able to use continuing
education credits from the course for
civilian Emergency Medical Technician re-certification
requirements. For more information on
CMAST courses, please consult the Regional
Training Institute. ✯
Equal Opportunity
Leader
By Maj. Jack McKenna, Joint Force Headquarters Public Affairs
Imagine that you have completed basic and advanced individual training.
And now, after collecting a few years of training under your belt,
you’re finally fully qualified on your individual weapon and the unit’s
crew-served weapons. The long anticipated mobilization order arrives
and you hit the mob site running … no problem; you are trained and
ready to go.
Once in theater, however, things are different. You are no longer doing
your assigned job, instead you find yourself constantly getting assigned
tasks that “keep you in the wire.” Your first sergeant tells you that
because you remind him of his own 19-year-old daughter he isn’t letting
you go outside the “wire.” Who do you turn to for help?
The answer: your unit’s Equal Opportunity Leader. New regulations state
unit commanders must appoint an Equal Opportunity Leader. If your
unit is deploying, it is expected to arrive at the mobilization site with a
Department of Army certified EOL. However, due to time constraints the
mobilization station will no longer provide the training.
Sgt. Danielle Sullivan of C Medical Company, 126 Brigade Support Battalion, performs hasty evacuation procedures
on Soldier during simulated mortar attack while CMAST course instructor Sgt. First Class Troy Mobley
of Regional Training Institute provides instruction. The course had a 100 percent pass rate with an average
score of 87 out of 100 points. All Massachusetts National Guard combat medics are required to complete the
30-hour training. (Photo: Capt. Jeffrey Cox)
As a result, the EOL course proponent school, located at Fort Jackson,
fielded a 60-hour EOL training and certification course to the National
Guard Bureau for immediate implementation.
Under the direction of Lt. Col. Doris Lopilato, the Senior Northeast
Regional Representative to the Army National Guard‘s National Equal
Opportunity/Equal Employment Opportunity Diversity Committee, Lt.
Col. David Cuttle and CW5 William Bouchard of the State Equal
Employment Management Office became the first to offer the
Department of the Army’s Equal Opportunity Leader Course at Camp
Edwards last August.
Scenarios just like the one above were discussed in a group setting with
the 14 students in attendance from throughout New England. The
curriculum consisted of Army learning styles indicators, Ahe army’s EO
program and policies, role of the EOA and EOL, socialization process,
values, attitudes, behaviors, communications process, effective and
active listening and effective feedback. Students were also required to
complete assignments independent of the classroom.
Thanks to the hard work of Lopilato and her team, the course was a great
success and 14 soldiers are now deployable as Equal Opportunity
Leaders for their respective organizations. ✯
The Force of Freedom 27