PYEONGTAEK, South Korea, In a room filled with a suffocating odor and the intense sounds of gunfights, a medic rushes to a mannequin lying on the ground, swiftly ripping off its military uniform to provide emergency medical treatment.
Blood gushes from the mannequin’s thigh, a result of a gunshot wound. The medic quickly plugs gauze and bandages directly into the hole, attempting to stop the bleeding from an artery.
Under the dim red light, the mannequin’s badly mangled right leg continues to twitch.
“This room replicates the chaos of the battlefield as realistically as possible,” remarked Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Maldonado during a training session held at the Vandal Training Center in Camp Humphreys, located 60 kilometers south of Seoul.
“There’s very little light and no communication. If you can perform under these conditions, then you can likely succeed anywhere else,” Maldonado added.
The Medical Simulations Training Center is one of the many cutting-edge training facilities housed within the Va
ndal Training Center at Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. base abroad.
Named after the late Lt. Gen. Thomas Steven Vandal, former commanding general of the Eighth Army, the US$61 million complex, spanning 23,226 square meters, has provided a diverse array of live, virtual and realistic training opportunities since 2019. Last year alone, over 88,000 U.S. and South Korean military personnel underwent training for a total of 37,000 hours.
The training center unveiled its facilities to a group of reporters Saturday, allowing them firsthand experiences with simulators and the opportunity to familiarize themselves with critical survival procedures in various settings.
Notable among these was the Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer (HEAT), designed to prepare soldiers for vehicle rollovers and emergency egress scenarios.
If the truck rolls beyond 30 degrees, vehicle crews are trained to anticipate the impending roll before it is completely turned upside down to prepare for their emergency exit.
Training on HEAT has
shown a significant increase in survival rates, with soldiers trained on the simulator demonstrating a 250 percent greater chance of survival in emergencies compared with untrained individuals, a training instructor said.
The center offers immersive training experiences for tank crews through the M1A2 tank simulator, replicating real-life combat scenarios in a game-like setting.
The simulator is equipped with crew positions for a commander, a gunner, a driver and an instructor position to train them in modern warfare settings.
In addition to ground vehicle simulations, water survival training is available at a 3.5-meter-deep swimming pool to ensure comprehensive readiness across various combat environments.
During a session, rescue divers and swimmers demonstrated how to save pilots from a ditched, rapidly sinking helicopter, using a training simulator cage that combines the environments of CH-47 and UH-60 helicopters.
Joseph Crandall, a water survival training manager, emphasized the necessity of repeat
ed training to teach crews how to escape and find their way up and out of upside-down helicopters.
“You’re now fish food and don’t climb up,” Crandall said as one reporter failed to properly egress the cockpit within a set time period. “This is why you need a class to be trained for the emergency.”
Based on know-how from operating the center, U.S. officials said they will explore ways to link the Vandal Training Center with other high-tech training complexes to enhance interoperability and military readiness.
Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, highlighted plans to connect advanced training centers like the Vandal Training Center with other facilities, such as the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center and the Korean Combat Training Center, in the future.
“We’re going to try to link those centers up with simulations run right out here on the Vandal Training Center to do live, virtual and constructive training environments for the forces in the field,” Flynn said during an intervi
ew with Yonhap News Agency at the center Saturday.
“That creates all kinds of additional levels of complexity so people become proficient at their individual skills, small unit skills and collective skills,” he added.
Source: Yonhap News Agency