RODRIGUEZ LIVE FIRE COMPLEX, South Korea – The Eighth Army Best Medic Competition continues into the fourth day on Nov. 16, 2023, challenging participants with negotiate day and night land navigation and providing Prolonged Casualty Care.

The PCC evaluation required the teams to administer medical care in a simulated austere and remote environment, with limited medical supplies, equipment, and intermittent casualty influx for more than six hours.

Graders assessed competitors’ ability to manage few resources, prioritize care based on the severity of injuries, and communicate effectively with their teammate.

“We assessed our patients, called a 9-line for air MedEvac, and provided various interventions before the air was clear to get the patients,” 1st Lt. Emily McKinney, a pilot with the 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade said. We also had to fill out the prolonged care sheet which tracks vitals, fluid in and out, medications and interventions given.”

Treating casualties is not McKinney’s area of expertise as a pilot. During the lanes, she was faced with the challenge of treating patients that normally her paramedic would do when she is flying a MedEvac mission.

“I’ve never put in a catheter or given medications, or even hooked up fluids to an IV, so my partner had to walk me through a lot of what I was doing while he was taking care of his patient as well,” McKinney said.

Following the completion of PCC, teams moved on to land navigation, where they had to locate four grid points in three hours to demonstrate their navigational abilities.

“It’s [land navigation course] a very mountainous, challenging and spread-out course, with lots of steep drop-offs. The rain today is going to bring on an additional challenge for the competitors to navigate through.” Spc. Caleb Lefebers, a patriot fire control enhanced operator assigned to Delta 2 Combined Task Force, said.

Tomorrow, the competition will conclude at Camp Humphreys with a combat water survival test, buddy run and culminate with the award ceremony that will identify the winning team of this year’s 8A BMC.