They answered the battle cry and stood in the line of duty, at home and abroad, to protect and preserve our freedoms, our safety, and our country’s heritage. It is because of their vigilance this country became and remains the land of the free and the home of the brave.

We respect them, we thank them, and we honor them, and forever hold great pride for their service, regardless of their length of time in uniform.  We, as a people, need a vision that longs for peace, who prays for peace, and who seeks to be peacemakers in this world. Let us always be vigilant in that cause, and that our country’s sovereignty is eternally dependent on those who are serving now, and those who will serve in the future.

Let us, as a people, embrace and live the values and principles that our military stands guard for every day, and show thankfulness every day for their protection over our rights and freedoms to choose.

May is National Military Appreciation Month. It’s your opportunity to take a closer look around you and show your appreciation to those who have held the line in the past and present, and perhaps inspire those who will serve in the future. There isn’t an American alive today in all walks of life that haven’t been touched in some way by the military service of family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and acquaintances. We are a nation full of Patriot sons and daughters who have served as veterans or currently serving on active duty. Let us also not forget their families, who stand with them in support by keeping the home fires burning until they safely return.

This month, let us truly reflect on what it means to be the land of the free and the home of the brave by making an effort to seek out those who have earned our thanks and salute. Our military are deserving heroes, and are always willing to endure the most difficult conditions at home and abroad to sustain our hard won liberty. Listen to their stories that speak of service and sacrifice, and you’ll have a refreshed perspective on what it truly means to walk in the freedom that you hold dear.

On Memorial Day, May 30th, take a moment to pause and reflect on those who bore the heavy cost of freedom, and laid down their lives for that cause throughout our country’s history. Those military heroes gave up all their tomorrows so that you could have your todays. God Bless our Military!

It is the day of honor set aside for the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who died on the battlefields in service to this country and what it represents. They answered a higher calling to defend the values and a way of life that was worth fighting for. I often wonder where we get such extraordinary citizens, who willingly stand in harm’s way for the protection and security of millions who will never truly ponder the historical cost of our nation’s independence.

Memorial Day has its roots in the earlier traditions of Decoration Day, which was a tradition of southern women who decorated the graves of the dead during the Civil War. Three years after the war ended the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Veterans, formally recognized Decoration Day and established it as Memorial Day. From then on it would be a time for the nation to pause in gratitude, and decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers in of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service.

Maj. Gen. John A. Logan issued General Order No. 11 on May 5th, 1868, and declared that Memorial Day should be observed on May 30th. “…gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime….let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation’s gratitude,–the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.”

The first official observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. with ceremonies centered around the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

To quote Father Richard Welch from his noteworthy Memorial Day tribute” On this most solemn holiday, we must stop and consider the great sacrifices that others have made so that we may have the freedom and prosperity we enjoy. Let us consider what those valiant warriors were fighting for…and let us honor each and every one of them…with a prayer, and a pledge to restore to this nation the honor, morality, values and love of God for which they gave their lives.”

“Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.”

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow –

One of the major obstacles that both civilian and military EMS responders face is to successfully educate their executive or financial decision makers in the significance and positive direct impact professional moulage education has on field training applications. They are crippled by a common view that casualty simulation is more of a tolerated nuisance exercise than a significant investment in enhanced education which provides realistic training environments and sharper measure outcomes. As a result, funding for professional training in casualty simulation moulage is virtually non-existent.

This adverse mind set fosters a “lack of access” continuum that is driven by these faulty perceptions. They fail to comprehend that providing their personnel funding and access to (casualty simulation moulage) training experts and high fidelity materials resources can positively affect the creation of optimal and accurate clinical and battlefield scenarios for successful learning results that measure quality and quantitative improvement. Studies on the benefits of casualty simulation training by respected academic institutions, such as the Uniformed University of Health Sciences, concluded that moulage had a direct contribution to reduce combat medic “freeze” in theatre, thus more lives can be potentially saved on the battlfield.

Inferior casualty simulation protocols tend to be far less effective and don’t foster cumulative knowledge in application or performance. They don’t result in a collective pool of increased information, shared experiences, and sustained educational resources. Rather, they ebb and flow or just fade away as lead educators and/or their staff rotate in and out of training positions. Thus, the majority of these departments fail to establish a quality casualty simulation training standard of value to hand off, nor have they acquired any significant moulage assets. Ultimately there is no real provision for training sustainment or updated moulage application procedures for their incoming counterparts.

To be fair in this observation, a few civilian companies and government installations do make some effort to find and resource their first responder personnel with professional moulage training. But invariably it goes back again to the same problem in building up and sustaining the quality of knowledge and experience momentum gained as those moulage trained personnel come and go. Thus, an optimal casualty simulation training platform never becomes a fully established program with continuity to hand off, or one that can accommodate any kind of positive sustained training for routine staff changes.

Therefore, the lack of importance, priority, or failing to identify and maintain the need for high fidelity casualty simulation programs with high standards of execution directly contributes to a deficit in factually accurate measure of expected outcomes or identifying negative training implications. Without a benchmark to hold forward to, inferior training exercises invariably end up wasting people’s time and resources, and with failed objectives.

Emergency medical response in a post-9/11 world demands as much realistic hands-on casualty simulation training whenever and wherever possible. It will always be paramount to successful combat readiness, and a critical gauge for proper response and reaction time. What is realistically experienced and learned is ultimately better retained, and results in enhanced skills in performance. Therefore high fidelity replication of military battlefield or civilian disaster injury case scenarios must be a part of successful field training exercises that engage real to the eye injury reproductions. Trainees must train and interact with the very best agents of expertise available in casualty simulation and high fidelity moulage.

Military Moulage Combat Injury Simulation exists solely to serve the professional casualty simulation training needs of those working in the field of pre-hospital care in all theatres of operation. We are the experts that stand with these medical providers in their focus to keep current in rapid injury recognition in their triage training in order to perform the highest level of care under fire. We understand that all pre hospital health care providers need to be challenged and engaged in the highest quality casualty simulation training that must include the most realistic to the eye injury scenarios.

Our company provides a complete state of the art casualty simulation moulage program that uses only high fidelity training materials and methods. We have a team of the very best professional military combat medics who co-instruct these workshops so that our students learn to perform moulage at the ultimate level of realism, and with the most innovative techniques and provisions available. We created the distinctive Identical Depiction Reality™ method for ultra realistic casualty simulation performance techniques. This is a “turn-key” style of instruction and execution that results in an auto-sustainable casualty simulation moulage resource for any organization or installation.

With little effort our program can be easily transferred along staff lines yet retain a high degree of accuracy. Our training protocols are unmatched by any other moulage program, and the “train like you fight” approach gives medics the leading edge they need to be successful in any theatre of operation. For more information please contact us and ask for our training brochure. Our current workshops are posted on our training page.

Take a moment this Christmas week to pray for the continued safety of our military. Remember that they and their loved ones have given up and sacrificed much in support of our great country. They have answered a high calling to serve and protect, a burden they willingly carry for us, and we must never forget to show appreciation, care, and respect for what they do. Without their vigilance there would be no freedom to celebrate
a holiday that this nation cherishes, and in the religious fashion people choose to do so.

Christmas will also bear the marks of the brave and courageous who have fallen in the line of duty. The families and loved ones they have left behind will have empty places and heavy hearts that are still healing from their loss. Let us honor them in remembrance of their ultimate sacrifice both in deed and in prayer. We are thankful for those who have safely returned and let us always show our gratitude for their patriotic service. This Christmas Poem is dedicated as a tribute to our military men and women, and whose service and sacrifices will never be forgotten.

A Soldier’s Christmas, by Michael Marks

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light

Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam’,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”

“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

Moulage is also known as makeup special effects in the movie and TV industry, and can be as simple as applying commercially pre-made wound simulations that strap on or applied with a skin safe adhesive. Or, moulage can be as complex as employing a variety of high fidelity materials and high tech Hollywood style methods to create fantastic looking real to the eye casualties. The practice of moulage actually dates to the Renaissance period when diseases were mocked up in wax for medical study.

The purpose of casualty simulation moulage today is to provide a visual educational objective through training in high fidelity realism for the military combat field medic or civilian first responder. Utilizing high quality moulage techniques and materials in training better equips military medical response personnel for actual battlefield trauma triage. Real to the eye injury simulations in moulage increases knowledge and performance in three important areas: casualty recognition, rapid reaction time and training retention.

The most critical minutes in a wounded soldier’s care in combat is the first 10, and quick reaction time can make all the difference between life and death. The vital connection between the laboratory injury simulation experience and a real life combat injury encounter has proven to be a pivotal element in keeping our warfighters alive on the battlefield. Casualty simulation training links to greater success in actual life saving triage by reducing the potential of medic “freeze” on the battlefield.

Military Moulage Combat Injury Simulation believes good casualty simulation requires important steps in successfully creating moulaged injuries that sustain training with a positive outcome in the three R’s of recognition, reaction and retention. We have strict guidelines that our staff of combat medics adhere to when instructing personnel and running their training scenarios. Here are some of the basics that every moulage artist should follow that will create the most realistic results for your moulage endeavors:

**Develop a good basic working knowledge of anatomy and physiology. It will be very important for you to understand how to build the pathology or trajectory of the wound you want to simulate if you want believable results and real time rapid response from your personnel in a training exercise or drill.

**Do your research. Every good moulage technician should have a file or collection of photos or books that they can refer to in their initial design of a wound. All wounds included in your injury simulation index should be crafted from authenticated reference materials. For instance, a bullet entry and exit wound should be bullet caliber appropriate, not just guessing what it might look like. Try to have several different pictorial references of the same type of injury so that you have some parameter for accuracy.

**Design accurate injury simulation scenarios. It must have a realistic cause and the proper effect, so this is where your careful research comes into play. It means that the injury displays the proper impact to the body along with other possible injuries that could be sustained along with it such as shock, cyanosis, and diaphoresis. A good simulation will have other subtle indications that kick critical thinking skills into action.

Stay tuned for Part 2 to be posted here.