And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
This is a picture of God’s messengers on
earth. It is an image of brothers born from a different womb but of the same
mother-products of sights, sounds and experiences they absorb so the remainder
of us do not. They have nobility that only shared sacrifice and pursuit of a
cause greater than themselves can bestow grace.
They are nameless and ageless but they
are forever. They made us what we are and they will determine what we will be.
Their dress has changed over time as have their tools. But these are cosmetic
compared to the common inner core that carries them into their tasks, bonds
them forever and insures their collective and individual success for
generations.
Unlike most similar apparitions assigned
to many other Nation’s, these are unique. They carry a message of light to
lands lost in darkness. Their demeanor and innate sense of goodness, generosity
and grace effects the minds and wishes of the people’s within their range of
influence and creates a lasting memory that a thousand years of bad history
cannot erase.
They carry a sword but also a larger
instrument of compassion-they carry themselves. In their simple world, one
always leads to another. Complexity is for others not so directly engaged.
They may only vaguely understand the
larger issues that brought them to a distant dismal place but that is not
important. What is important is that they represent a hope and aspiration
probably never-before experienced. Their image engenders a way of life and
imagined ideals that are the residue of their momentary presence.
The uniform, the flag and the honest
personalities pass a message no amount of media can generate. They are us and
what we stand for.
The land they may take is small, not much
larger than each of them but permanent in nature as what they stood for and
their successors stand for now and as we all stand for the future.
Look at this image. It is us and it is
good. The greatest of gifts has no price other than that which is willingly
offered.
The Defense Health Agency maintains a web site called Deployed
Medicine here: Deployed
Medicine -- which includes includes links to their app on
both the Apple and Android Stores.
Free.
The Deployed Medicine website includes several sections, including Tactical Combat Casualty Care, curated by (not surprisingly) The Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care. Understandably, these folks are on the cutting edge of trauma care, so this can be considered the source.That page includes manuals, videos, and reference documents.
This includes ratings of several tourniquets recommended for use in trauma care. Link to that is here: CoTCCC Recommended Devices & Adjuncts, click on the "View Book" button to read and/or download it as a .pdf.
Again, better to have it and not need it, than to need it and be waiting for the paramedics or a passing Combat Lifesaver...
Perhaps with that in mind, Tamara had a post yesterday (The largest window for error...) in which she linked to an article about gun safety vis à vis administrative gun handling, and said that, if you're going to carry a gun, you should have a "blow out kit" with you. (SayUncle linked, and, this being the Internet, predictably, derp ensured in comments.)
In that post I included some videos of how to apply a tourniquet, including one I reproduce here, how to apply a field expedient tourniquet:
As to which tourniquet to carry, the two standards seem to be the CAT (Gen 7+) and the SOF-T (Gen 4+); the advantages of one over the other seem be minor and due as much to personal preference of the professional you are speaking to, as well as to incremental improvements in one or the other. Similar tourniquets are likely to mimic the style or design, but use cheaper materials.
There is at least one "bargain" tourniquet that is essentially a long rubber band; in formal testing it was rated as better than nothing -- barely. (The sales pitch is cool, "Tighten until the diamonds are squares and the ovals are circles"; just doesn't seem to work as well in real application.)
You need to take classes; even if you master applying a tourniquet by watching YouTube videos, there are other things you'll need to know. So where do you find such training? After all, you might not know a handy Ambulance Driver who happens to be conducting a class on the subject.
If you're not comfortable buying emergency medical/trauma care supplies off of Amazon -- and stories of counterfeit merchandise abound -- some reputable sources include:
This is another item in the "Better to have it (and know how to use it!) but never need it, than to need it and not have it and/or not know how to use it" category.
It got a bit hazy once we made altitude, but this gives you an idea of the local terrain.
(Click to embiggenate.)
I was on the wrong side of the plane for shots of Mt. Rainier.
Too far south for Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker, or Glacier Peak.
Somewhere over the Mississippi weather started to close in.
Last 45 minutes or so of the flight into IND was rough.
On final into SEA, sunset over the Olympics 1
On final into SEA, sunset over the Olympics 2
On final into SEA, sunset over the Olympics 3
SEA has airplanes hanging from the ceilings, so naturally, IND displays race cars...
Obligatory local color/architecture shots:
The buildings in that part of town are all connected by a series of skywalks.
Most of them are not this fancy.
