There were no helicopters; destroyed by missile attack while being on a vulnerable ship. With only puny 5" naval guns from destroyers at great risk to themselves from Exocet antiship missiles--and a handful of 105mm towed guns, the British Paratroops of Colonel H. Jones have to march across the Falklands Islands with everything on their backs; they will have to overcome stiff Argentine positions, dug-in on the rocky high ground. If a "Para" gets hit he'll have to be patched-up on the spot, there will be no MEDEVAC choppers to fly him to a field hospital. If the bleeding is not stopped, the man dies.

Colonel Jones leads his men into the attack uphill. He is cut-down by machine gun fire, but his battalion defeats the "Argies", at great cost. Each man has TWO field dressings taped to his rifle buttstock to quickly stop the bleeding of both entrance and exit wounds, saving hundreds of lives.

U.S. Army SOP is one field dressing in case on the LBE shoulder straps which all combat trauma experts agree is not enough, dressings quickly saturate with blood and even 2 is not enough: the canteen cover should be redesigned for an outer pouch to hold 2 dressings and/or a cravat. Until then, 2 dressings should be taped to the rifle/weapon stock with "100 mph" tape for ready access and to act as a cheek pad. At the tape's end fold to create a "pull-tab". Its unrealistic to think Combat Life Savers (CLSers) will be able to carry enough field dressings for their entire unit in their M3 CLS bags.

6 years after we posted the idea of taping a field dressing to the rifle buttstock, U.S. Army Center for Lessons Learned (CALL) "discovered" the technique for their 2002 Afghanistan report:

http://call.army.mil/products/handbook/02-8/02-8ch2.htm

"Tape a spare field dressing to the sling at the stock, using a single strip of wide cloth tape with a quick-release tab".

The British Airborne's plight on the Falklands is not unique: all of our Iowa-class battleships are in mothballs or being turned into museums (unless Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and John Warner of Virginia's efforts to keep 2 ships with their 16" guns available succeed) so our Airborne will only have what it takes--with coastal defenses, mines, our Navy is unlikely to risk billion-dollar Aegis cruisers into 5" gun range for Paratrooper/marines ashore. Paratroopers maneuvering against enemy fire, if hit in the chest without adequate rifle-caliber resistant body armor or gunshields will need plastic to re-establish an air-tight seal. Current CTT manuals incorrectly teach Soldiers to tape all 4 sides of a "sucking chest" wound that when closed all around causes pressure to build that can collapse the lung around the heart and kill Soldiers. All Soldiers--not just combat life-savers need to be trained to seal only 3 sides of a pressure dressing to create a "flutter valve" so pressure is released during breathing. A new field dressing with this valve built-in has been created by U.S. Navy SEAL HM2 (E5) Rick Ashermann while assigned to U.S. Army Medical Command at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. They're available from:

Armstrong Medical Co.
PO Box 700
Lincolnshire IL 60069
1-800-323-4220 or (708)913-0138

Order using the U.S. Government Blanket Purchasing Agreement # SP020095A9059 and part # AE1700; cost is $95 for a box of 10. The higher cost, pressure-release field dressing should be inside a compass/dressing pouch on the Soldier's LBE/TLBV shoulder area secured by bicycle inner-tube "Ranger Bands" for quick retrieval in event of sucking chest would with the basic field dressings in quantity (for non-pressure release wounds--2 on the buttstock as an expedient cheek pad to speed sight alignment/picture for snap shooting accuracy that hits the enemy, and one dressing under the magazine pouch top flaps using a sewn-in retainer strap which helps silence metal magazine rattle. An improved canteen cover/mag pouch with larger outer pocket would increase field dressing numbers when we realize the issue canteen cover is obsolete and unreliable due to metal snap failure and the fumbling required to access canteens.

Paratroopers hit by high-velocity projectiles not defeated by armor often have both entrance and exit wounds--one field dressing is not enough. WWII Paratroopers had a couple on their helmets and so should we.

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