Care Under Fire

What to remember

• Care Under Fire means helping a casualty while you and they are still under effective enemy fire, with only the gear you or they carry.CLS M03 Notes, PDF p.3
• Return fire and take cover first, then win fire superiority. Never go to a casualty who is still inside a kill zone.CLS M03 Slides, PDF p.7
• If the casualty can still act, tell them to return fire, put on their own tourniquet if needed, and move to cover.CLS M03 Notes, PDF p.4
• The only medical act under fire is a tourniquet on life-threatening arm or leg bleeding. Airway and other wounds wait for Tactical Field Care.CLS M03 Notes, PDF p.6
• Put the tourniquet high and tight, ideally within 1 minute. A casualty can bleed to death in as little as 3 minutes.CLS M03 Notes, PDF p.5
• Use the casualty's tourniquet before your own, and keep yours where you can grab it fast, never at the bottom of the pack.CLS M03 Slides, PDF p.15
• After the tourniquet is on, drag or carry the casualty to the nearest cover. Spinal injury is not a worry during these moves.CLS M03 Slides, PDF p.25

Where people go wrong

• Treating anything other than life-threatening limb bleeding while still under fire. Airway and wounds to the neck, armpit, groin or belly wait.CLS M03 Notes, PDF p.6
• Using your own tourniquet first, or burying it at the bottom of your pack.CLS M03 Slides, PDF p.15
• Putting a tourniquet right over the knee or elbow, or over a holster or cargo pocket with bulky items in it.CLS M03 Notes, PDF p.8
• Writing the tourniquet time during Care Under Fire. That is done in Tactical Field Care.CLS M03 Notes, PDF p.6

Check yourself

Questions on this module, each with the reason and the slide it came from.