Meeting my Training Chiefs; the 4FAF Training Team!

On 27th June 2024 I was privilaged enough to get connected personally with my former Training Chief's of the 4th Fast Attack Craft Flotilla (The 'Dvora Squadron' in common vocabulary!), as we met at Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation for a recording.

Above Image, From left to right: Retired Master Chief Petty Officers (MCPO) Warakagodage Ajith (Training Chief), Bandula Liyanage, myself and Janaka Samarasinghe (Training Chief).

It was a family gathering too, as they joined with their spouses and children and our discussion naturally drifted to 'good old times'! I thought of sharing several for your consumption as we believe the society today should learn something from our past experiences.

1. First Aid: The 'Dvora Squadron' started to review its Comabt Medicine capacities as a result of our annual exrecises with the United State Navy's Special Boat Squadron (SBU) begining 1997. The SBU personnel taught us the Comabt Medicine techniques for the first time and we started to built our own capacities; both individual and institutional (as a fighting squadron). The base for training was to treat the least wounded first, so that he is resurrected to deliver the much needed firepower in naval warfare. (In civilian set-up it will be the mortally wounded or injured that will be attended first to save his life!) After attending combat medicine to the least wounded, then we were trained to focus on dying to save the life till the Dvora Craft reach harbour which on either way of 2 hours of sailing at 35 knots speed!
2. We mastered these to a level that many life threatening battle injuries were saved to live! And there were several exceptional sailors such as Leading Marine-engineering Mechanic (L/ME) Saman Kumara (retired from Navy and now employed in Sri Lanka Railway) who mastered the comabt medicine techniques and the Officer In Command (OIC) of Dvora's were so confident to go with him as his dressing and battle care were so perfect that Naval Medical was only required to take the wounded chap direct to the surgery room! We were trained to administer IV, attend battle wounds of punctures (due gun shot injuries), bowel opening (due explosions), multiple injuries (due fragmentaions) and also addressing the fear factor! (Imagine the scenario where you get shot at your arm causing heavy bleeding and the 23mm round that hit you causing multiple fragmentation injuries to your face, neck and exposed parts-when wearing helmet and body armour-in the night at sea where the nearest hospital is 70 nautical miles away! And the sea is rough with 24m Dvora craft rolling, pitching and slamming amidst its high manoeuvering in pitch dark conditions!)
3. We each had our own Personal First-aid Pack, strapped to our right thigh which was used first by the wounded, to adminsiter himself till other members comes to aid in a lull of fighting! These packs were checked everytime before sailing as a ritual as they become your 'life-saver! There were simulated drills both on land and on-board to test individual capacity and capability to respond under pressure! Amdst chaos of gunfire, yelling of command, and engine noise each one was trained to respond physically and psychologically, and this was tested by the Training Chief of the Training Team. Naturally, the Training Chief was the best of the best!
4. The society today need to know the first-aid, as the tendancy is to carry the wounded to nearest hospital without attending to the basics; The A (Airway, need to be clear for breathing), B (Breathing need to be happening to safe life), C (Ciculation need to be ensured to protect vital organs)!
5. Swimming: We emphasised much on swimming at sea to build confidence, starting as individual and expanding to the team. The OICs were to jump first in training schedules follows by their crew, to ensure that the required confidence levels were achieved. Swimming is the best confidence builder, and one is confident about himself he will be confident enough to achive much in all spheres. We were taught how to swim with one arm (assuming the the arm is injured), how to survive at sea with both leg injured, how to float at sea with one's shirt or trouser and also how to treat the resued survivours. The Training Chief's once again were the implementing arms! They handled and managed human issues of inability to swim, hesitation to swim and even threatning to commit suicide if made to swim!
6. The society must pay attention to swimming as we are an Island Nation, and our fatalities due drowning is fairly high! The young generation must know how to swim and through that what you improve is your self-confidence!
7. We all regret that we did not took photographs of our operational sea training at that time (because we did not had smart phones at that time and cameras were rare commodity!)and what ever the recording we had were lost or destroyed after the conflict time due narrow personal vandata! But I am sure, that generation who got trained through the 4FAF Training Team (I was the Flotilla's Training Officer twice;both hand-picked during 1999-2000 and in 2006-2007 till I was made the Flotilla Comamnder in 2007-2008), will cherish their training; realistic and simulated to bring out the confusion and pressure of the batlle at sea. We may need it again, so keep training for the next conflict! It can not be faought the way we fought the last, but the lessons learnt on last will sure will help to fight!