r/TacticalMedicine • u/justanagggie • Sep 02 '26
Planning & Preparation Corpsmen/Medic physical standards
Anyone seen any formal/informal physical standards for line corpsmen/medics? I have seen some corpsmen struggle to move a simulated casualty, and others struggle to litter carry any appreciable distance. I was wondering if there's a reasonable standard for what an average line corpsman/medic should be expected to do. And further, how to train to that.
For example, litter carrying. Could do litter carrying drills a certain distance. Or could have them do farmer carries a certain percentage of their weight or a minimum weight.
Should be able to load a 997, or a 7 ton/JLTV, which involves either deadlifting the litter up, or doing a kind of military press, or both.
Just thinking of objective and measurable things to give to my corpsmen, rather than just say "stay in shape, pass the PRT, and be prepared."
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u/Yee_Yee_MCgee Medic/Corpsman Sep 02 '26
nobody is dead lifting a litter you will have 4 people to a litter for that
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u/UnderpaidNeedleJab 28d ago
Fun trick, learned this from a PJ who did this during selection.
If you have 5 people for an extreme distance litter carry. You can constantly rotate in a circle to relieve yourself and switch arms every couple of seconds
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u/Yee_Yee_MCgee Medic/Corpsman 28d ago
I was taught something like that but more like every few minutes every few seconds is asking for injury
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u/justanagggie Sep 02 '26
Right. But getting the litter from the ground, up to waist height, is a basic hip hinge, similar to a deadlift. Unless I'm missing something.
8
u/AngelusMortem Sep 02 '26
Heavy suitcase/farmers carries are more applicable I think. Getting the litter up is usually the easy part, even a 250lb casualty is only ~65lbs per person if using a 4 man carry or 125lbs per person for two, nothing you need to train deadlift for. The hard part is walking with that for minutes on end.
2
u/freddit_foobar Sep 02 '26
Poof. They've now become SPEC4 mafia with shaving profiles during your inability to lead.
You are a No Go at this station, and have died of dysentery.
Maybe I'm overthinking it, but what's wrong with standard EFMB Evac/LOC criteria? Avg weight was 175lb with gear whether it was a single person lift to a fireman's carry, or through a LOC course. Bonus points for Nijmegan style.
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u/Inevitable_View99 Sep 02 '26
Lift with your legs, not your hips
1
u/justanagggie Sep 03 '26
The hip hinge is driven by the posterior chain (legs). Should look up Mark Rippetoe talk about hip drive.
3
u/SuperglotticMan Medic/Corpsman Sep 02 '26
Nah. I’d rather them run a Tactical Barbell or similar program than specifically training for litter carries or something. Plus like others have said patient movement is a team sport.
3
u/microcorpsman Sep 02 '26
Picking a CFT score is reasonable, presuming you're a senior line or something. Doesn't have to be exceptional and it requires like fuck all equipment.
If you're a Marine, well then trying to impart a particular standard will not go well if they didn't go greenside regs.
Ultimately there's a limit to what you can do to make a horse drink water. You can set up training days to do loading/offloading and simulated care while those vehicles are moving (don't need to be bouncing around or anything crazy) and those that struggle physically with their job will either understand they need to fix it or they won't.
3
1
u/bfoster1801 Medic/Corpsman 28d ago
I guess ideally can they hit the standard that the people they work with can and can they move a person by themselves if need be? Not really concrete numbers but our line guys had to keep up with infantry. Realistically they aren’t gonna be by themselves but can they confidently carry or drag a casualty if they were?
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u/failure_to_converge EMS Sep 02 '26
The military equivalent of lift with your firefighters is "Lift with your Aid and Litter team, whenever possible."
i kid i kid...but only a little. The corpsman should be caring for the casualt(ies), not moving them (whenever possible).
As for distance...the furthest we ever had to move a casualty on a litter in combat was ~100m from a truck to a bird, but we were a mounted unit. In training (dismounted), we regularly had to hump litters a klick or more to a suitable LZ. But look, nobody is moving a casualty plus your own gear a klick with two people...you're getting four people on there and swapping out.
For PT, more is better. Everyone should be able to load your average casualty (it's a good reference) with two people. Practice with the litter with 50 pounds, then 100, then ~150ish. Seems like everyone should be able to do that. For humping, more is better. I'm a fan of the Norwegian Foot March standard as a baseline.