- Joined
- Apr 11, 2006
- Messages
- 1,267
- Reaction score
- 147
IU'm also posting this on the C4 Thread - they've changed it again:
So I just got back from C4 and Im attempting to give the whole rundown. This might be long, so save it, and give it a look before you go. I have a big general comments section at the end about what supplies to take and general info about the course.
Thursday: Arrive (change into BDUs in airport USO lounge). Take shuttle to Camp Bullis (no need to take the early shuttle, might as well hang out in the A/C @ the airport). You get there, they have you sign contact info stuff and issue you your gear (ruck sack, sleeping bag, gas mask, etc). Then they assign you to a hutment. Your hutment is basically a long wooden storage shed with cots, a heater, and no insulation. You choose your cot, organize your stuff and meet your fellow C4 attendants.
Then you form up and march to the (air conditioned) auditorium. This is a painful and moderately embarrassing process the first couple of times. You sit through a couple of lectures, buy your MREs (~$60 cash), and eat dinner in the Galley (DFAC). Youre released around 20:00 to shower or hang out. Youre allowed to wear PT gear once instruction has ended. PT gear pretty much means any short/T-shirt combo you want.
Friday: Get up at 06:00 and have breakfast at the DFAC. There are a couple of AM lectures in the auditorium (you ALWAYS march to the theater) then you get on a bus and go to Ft. Sam Houston to start ATLS. Its ~30min bus ride and it gets old. The ATLS course is taught by a variety of docs from all 3 services. Some really know there stuff (trauma surgeons w/ 2 tours to Iraq) and some werent really up on their trauma knowledge (ophthalmologist). You stay there until fairly late Friday night MREs for dinner. By the way, MREs arent bad. Youve just got to learn to mix the ingredients to produce variety.
Saturday: Wake up @ 05:00 DFAC for breakfast. Get on the bus to Ft. Sam and sit through ATLS lectures ALL DAY LONG!! Its painful, but good training.
Sunday: Wake up @ 0500 DFAC for breakfast and bus to Ft. Sam. Youll take your ATLS practical and written test (you can retake it the last day if you fail). Youll finish around noon and then bus back to Camp Bullis. The afternoon has lectures in the auditorium (with a DFAC dinner break). One of the lectures is by an entomologist and is an amazing lecture.
Monday: Wake up @ 0500, DFAC for breakfast, Take the personnel carriers to the field portion. Youll have lectures all day on topics ranging from field splinting, to land navigation to searching prisoners. Pretty chill day to let you acclimatize to the heat. When you finish you go to your tent (it has all the folks from your hutment and the one next to it). The bathrooms are port-a-johns. There is no A/C. They have sink stands to wash your hands in and an enclosure where you can change your clothes.
Tuesday: Wake up @ 0600, they bring you hot food. They split you up into 4 groups. One half mans a Navy aid station in the morning and treats wounded patients (both mannequins and other students w/ fake wounds). In the afternoon they switch and man an Army aid station and then become simulated patients for the second group to treat. The other half does a litter obstacle course for half the day and they goes to the tactical simulator for half the day. Tactical simulator= big warehouse made to look like some Iraqi city street. They lead you through it while they set off flashbangs and fire off blanks.
Wednesday: Wake up @ 0400, MRE for breakfast. If you manned the aid stations the first day, then you go to the litter obstacle course and Tactical Simulator the second day. The other groups also switch activities accordingly. Youre all done and on your way back to Camp Bullis by 1600-1630. You get back and you turn in some of your gear. Youre then released to shower, eat, organize, etc.
Thursday: Wake up @ 0600, DFAC for breakfast. Some final critique lectures and hutment clean out. Navy folks that stay and shoot all get moved down to one or two hutments on the end. When I went, Navy shooting was optional, so I didnt stay and I dont have an accurate summary for Friday. Im pretty sure it was just, get up, pack up and go.
General Notes: We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and us to have some sort of midnight raid or tough long march or something. But it never came. It was planned evolutions during the day, and sleep at night.
The C4 staff was incredible. Most of it is taught by medics and corpsman who have served tours in combat. They handled the dynamic of enlisted teaching officer very well. If you just decide to have fun with activities and enjoy the folks your there with, it will be a good experience.
What to bring:
-2 copies of your orders and any forms that they send you ahead of time. If you dont have the forms, they have extras (I didnt bring mine with me).
-2 sets of BDUs (woodland w/ black boots or digital with desert boots), one for the field and one for ATLS.
-Find a headlamp or flashlight w/ a red lens b/c you cant use white light in the field portion and you have a lot of activities in the morning where its still dark. (I got one at Wal Mart for $10)
-A good pocket knife or utility tool was helpful.
-I wore nylon dress socks under my thick black dress/boot socks and I managed to only get one blister with a brand new pair of boots.
-Bring some cards or dominoes or travel chess board or something to do at night. I took a Step 3 book and never cracked it b/c I was playing dominoes instead. There really wasnt anywhere to read anyway.
-Take plenty of socks and undies, if it would have rained, I would have needed more to keep vital parts dry.
-Take a pack of baby wipes to the field. You can buy these at the shopette after you get there.
-Take shower shoes (gross!!).
-A camelback was nice to have, but not required.
-If its winter time youll definitely want some warm clothes to go under your BDUs.
-Some snack food (granola bars, trail mix, etc) if you absolutely have to have some. The MREs have plenty of snack food in them too.
-Stool softener/fiber. I didnt have trouble in this department but a lot of folks did. If you know your gut is temperamental or you have constipation issues, consider getting a fellow intern to hook you up with some docusate or just take fiber.
-Pack whatever you want. You dont have to carry it around, so you might as well bring it.
-Bring some big Ziploc bags to store ipods, phones, PDAs, etc.
The class is made up of docs, nurses, PAs, and dentists. If a nurse is annoying on the floor, shes also annoying at C4. It was a pretty even mix of Army, Navy and AF. There was one international student in our class from India, and 2 or 3 Coast guard folks.
So I just got back from C4 and Im attempting to give the whole rundown. This might be long, so save it, and give it a look before you go. I have a big general comments section at the end about what supplies to take and general info about the course.
Thursday: Arrive (change into BDUs in airport USO lounge). Take shuttle to Camp Bullis (no need to take the early shuttle, might as well hang out in the A/C @ the airport). You get there, they have you sign contact info stuff and issue you your gear (ruck sack, sleeping bag, gas mask, etc). Then they assign you to a hutment. Your hutment is basically a long wooden storage shed with cots, a heater, and no insulation. You choose your cot, organize your stuff and meet your fellow C4 attendants.
Then you form up and march to the (air conditioned) auditorium. This is a painful and moderately embarrassing process the first couple of times. You sit through a couple of lectures, buy your MREs (~$60 cash), and eat dinner in the Galley (DFAC). Youre released around 20:00 to shower or hang out. Youre allowed to wear PT gear once instruction has ended. PT gear pretty much means any short/T-shirt combo you want.
Friday: Get up at 06:00 and have breakfast at the DFAC. There are a couple of AM lectures in the auditorium (you ALWAYS march to the theater) then you get on a bus and go to Ft. Sam Houston to start ATLS. Its ~30min bus ride and it gets old. The ATLS course is taught by a variety of docs from all 3 services. Some really know there stuff (trauma surgeons w/ 2 tours to Iraq) and some werent really up on their trauma knowledge (ophthalmologist). You stay there until fairly late Friday night MREs for dinner. By the way, MREs arent bad. Youve just got to learn to mix the ingredients to produce variety.
Saturday: Wake up @ 05:00 DFAC for breakfast. Get on the bus to Ft. Sam and sit through ATLS lectures ALL DAY LONG!! Its painful, but good training.
Sunday: Wake up @ 0500 DFAC for breakfast and bus to Ft. Sam. Youll take your ATLS practical and written test (you can retake it the last day if you fail). Youll finish around noon and then bus back to Camp Bullis. The afternoon has lectures in the auditorium (with a DFAC dinner break). One of the lectures is by an entomologist and is an amazing lecture.
Monday: Wake up @ 0500, DFAC for breakfast, Take the personnel carriers to the field portion. Youll have lectures all day on topics ranging from field splinting, to land navigation to searching prisoners. Pretty chill day to let you acclimatize to the heat. When you finish you go to your tent (it has all the folks from your hutment and the one next to it). The bathrooms are port-a-johns. There is no A/C. They have sink stands to wash your hands in and an enclosure where you can change your clothes.
Tuesday: Wake up @ 0600, they bring you hot food. They split you up into 4 groups. One half mans a Navy aid station in the morning and treats wounded patients (both mannequins and other students w/ fake wounds). In the afternoon they switch and man an Army aid station and then become simulated patients for the second group to treat. The other half does a litter obstacle course for half the day and they goes to the tactical simulator for half the day. Tactical simulator= big warehouse made to look like some Iraqi city street. They lead you through it while they set off flashbangs and fire off blanks.
Wednesday: Wake up @ 0400, MRE for breakfast. If you manned the aid stations the first day, then you go to the litter obstacle course and Tactical Simulator the second day. The other groups also switch activities accordingly. Youre all done and on your way back to Camp Bullis by 1600-1630. You get back and you turn in some of your gear. Youre then released to shower, eat, organize, etc.
Thursday: Wake up @ 0600, DFAC for breakfast. Some final critique lectures and hutment clean out. Navy folks that stay and shoot all get moved down to one or two hutments on the end. When I went, Navy shooting was optional, so I didnt stay and I dont have an accurate summary for Friday. Im pretty sure it was just, get up, pack up and go.
General Notes: We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and us to have some sort of midnight raid or tough long march or something. But it never came. It was planned evolutions during the day, and sleep at night.
The C4 staff was incredible. Most of it is taught by medics and corpsman who have served tours in combat. They handled the dynamic of enlisted teaching officer very well. If you just decide to have fun with activities and enjoy the folks your there with, it will be a good experience.
What to bring:
-2 copies of your orders and any forms that they send you ahead of time. If you dont have the forms, they have extras (I didnt bring mine with me).
-2 sets of BDUs (woodland w/ black boots or digital with desert boots), one for the field and one for ATLS.
-Find a headlamp or flashlight w/ a red lens b/c you cant use white light in the field portion and you have a lot of activities in the morning where its still dark. (I got one at Wal Mart for $10)
-A good pocket knife or utility tool was helpful.
-I wore nylon dress socks under my thick black dress/boot socks and I managed to only get one blister with a brand new pair of boots.
-Bring some cards or dominoes or travel chess board or something to do at night. I took a Step 3 book and never cracked it b/c I was playing dominoes instead. There really wasnt anywhere to read anyway.
-Take plenty of socks and undies, if it would have rained, I would have needed more to keep vital parts dry.
-Take a pack of baby wipes to the field. You can buy these at the shopette after you get there.
-Take shower shoes (gross!!).
-A camelback was nice to have, but not required.
-If its winter time youll definitely want some warm clothes to go under your BDUs.
-Some snack food (granola bars, trail mix, etc) if you absolutely have to have some. The MREs have plenty of snack food in them too.
-Stool softener/fiber. I didnt have trouble in this department but a lot of folks did. If you know your gut is temperamental or you have constipation issues, consider getting a fellow intern to hook you up with some docusate or just take fiber.
-Pack whatever you want. You dont have to carry it around, so you might as well bring it.
-Bring some big Ziploc bags to store ipods, phones, PDAs, etc.
The class is made up of docs, nurses, PAs, and dentists. If a nurse is annoying on the floor, shes also annoying at C4. It was a pretty even mix of Army, Navy and AF. There was one international student in our class from India, and 2 or 3 Coast guard folks.
