Get caught up:
Max wasn’t particularly a fan of in-service training but he completely understood the need for it. What he didn’t understand was why they spent so much time on seemingly silly topics (understanding the cultural implications of footwear, as the example) and so little time on what might be of greater value; like today’s training on traumatic wound care. Having been a Navy Corpsman who served with a Marine Expeditionary Unit, Max had seen and treated his share of traumatic wounds; far more than he’d have preferred.
That experience was being leveraged by the primary instructor for the day’s training. Tom Pelloni was an EMT instructor, nationally certified, and with years of field experience behind him. He’d worked with the Department of State Security and with one of the larger overseas security contractor firms. When Tom had met Max prior to the class, introduced by Eddie, they immediately started discussing some of the things each man had seen and had to deal with. Five minutes later Tom was asking Max to assist with the class as it was obvious he didn’t really need to take it.
The day seemed long to Max as he helped his squad through various exercises in identifying, prioritizing and treating traumatic wounds. For police officers this mostly meant treating knife or gunshot wounds. Controlling the bleeding was the biggest concern and the squad learned quite a bit about hemostatic agents as well as proper application of tourniquets. They also learned about packing a wound, how to identify tension pneumothorax and more.
At lunch, just for the entertainment value of it, Tom showed actual footage from Vietnam M.A.S.H. hospitals while the squad ate the pizza that had been delivered. Surprisingly (to Tom), the squad barely slowed down. Most of them were fairly grossed out by the images they viewed, but they weren’t so grossed out that they lost their appetites or didn’t want to eat. The pizzas were consumed pretty quickly and they were back to “work” in class. The requirement was for seven hours of training with a number of knowledge and skill objectives attached. Tom’s outlook was that if the squad could all pass the written test and perform the practical skills before the seven hour mark then the time limit was superfluous. As a result, the day ended a bit early; about three o’clock in the afternoon instead of four or five which had been expected.
Tom made sure he had all of Max’s contact information. He was thinking that Max could be easily trained as an emergency medicine instructor and be of greater value to the PD – not to mention possibly making a few extra dollars on the side teaching non-police personnel. Max was indeed interested in such potential extra income so he gladly shared his info with Tom before heading out with the rest of the squad.
As they all headed out of the training center they planned a meeting place and time for dinner. Tradition called for the squad to have dinner together after a day of training. It gave them time to discuss what they’d learned and what they thought was good or bad. In this case, they agreed to meet at a local restaurant called The Pier. It was a restaurant that served equally good seafood or steaks, burgers, etc. and was built on a long pier that projected out over one of the city’s inlets. The meeting time was set for 6 pm (1800 hours) and they all went their separate ways.
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All of Season 2 of The Oceanside Chronicles, including officer survival notes and an alphabetical list of characters can be purchased as an anthology on Amazon.com via Amazon Prime.
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