Not so dumb after all
Posted by Michelle Tan on September 13th, 2008 filed in Michelle Tan: Notes From Afghanistan
The blinking was the creepiest thing the dummies did. The torn off limbs and oozing blood didn’t help, but for some reason, the fact that the high-tech mannequins used at the Medical Simulation Training Center here at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, had blue eyes and blinking eyelids freaked me out the most. Maybe it made the dummies more realistic. Maybe it gave them personality, so to speak. I guess that’s the point of this place: to simulate battlefield casualties in as real and personal a way as possible.
During the training, troops undergo an hour in the classroom before they are put through simulations complete with bleeding mannequins, dimmed lights, fog and simulated sounds of war – gun fire and a whole lot of yelling. The soldiers in the class we observed did a great job, much better than I could ever do, and for that, I am thankful.
As much as I hope soldiers will never need these skills in real life, I know this is the reality of what our men and women in uniform face on the front lines.
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