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View Full Version : Dark Angel Medical - Tactical Aid Course - Nov. 10 & 11, 2013



Dropkick
11-13-2013, 12:15 PM
Tactical Aid Course
Dark Angel Medical
Nov. 10 & 11, 2013
Chantilly, VA

Earlier this year I took the American Red Cross class for Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED to renew my long expired certification. While it provided a lot of great information for handling emergencies, it barely covered anything on traumatic injuries. While I read up on the subject and did as much “book” learning as I could, I knew that it was something that would require in-person training. This led me to Kerry Davis of Dark Angel Medical and his Tactical Aid Course that was being hosted by F3 Tactical.

It was a two day course, which was 16 hours total. The first day we started out with introductions and then moved into a brief talk about mindset and body alarm response. Following that we learned basic anatomy and physiology. I thought that this was a great introduction as to how the human “machine” worked. Kerry used a number of analogies that were easy to understand as he explained things. From there we moved onto patient assessment, “stop the bleeding, start the breathing” and what the DARK individual medical kit contained. We finished the first day and started the second day learning about how to identify and treat a number of different injuries. From there we talked about a number of tactical considerations when it comes to providing aid. And we finished with demos of how to use the various parts of the kit and a chance to practice with them.

There was a lot of material presented, and I’m glad that a course handbook was provided. I was able to take notes on new or important things instead of being in a mad dash to write everything down. The pace of the class was very steady, but allowed for questions and discussion as needed. And Kerry did a great job of answering any questions succinctly. Regular short breaks were scheduled in, which I thought was really important in order to let material sink in before moving on to the next topic.

I was surprised at the amount of information that was covered. I was only expecting to learn about gunshot wounds and how to treat them, but got so much more from the class. I think it was a good experience, and would suggest it to anyone who is looking to be introduced to topics beyond general first aid.