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Abstract

The Army and Marine Corps have a need to increase infantry squad capabilities to improve tactical effectiveness while managing casualties. The Squad Overmatch (SOvM) project focused on the development and execution of a curriculum to incorporate Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TC3) coordination and decision-making into squad-level training, expanding a 2013 effort to enhance existing training methods and technologies with more realistic combat exercises and experiences. An integrated training approach (ITA), including knowledge and skills training for improving advanced situational awareness (ASA), resilience, TC3, medical skills/decision-making, and team performance was developed to help teams make better decisions from a tactical and teamwork perspective. Squads received foundation training in an instructor-led classroom setting, and then were given practice opportunities in scenario-based gaming and live scenarios. The ITA was designed to allow TC3 providers and squad leadership to practice and improve targeted skills in unit-level casualty scenarios balancing tactical and medical requirements. This paper examines the degree to which the ITA scenario training technologies provided the fidelity necessary to support SOvM-TC3 learning objectives. The results allow training designers to carefully assess how different technologies can impact training effectiveness.

Keywords

Tactical Combat Casualty Care casualty simulation team training

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Squad-level training for Tactical Combat Casualty Care: instructional approach and technology assessment

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