IFAK stands for Individual First Aid Kit. It has been a staple in the US Military for quite some time now. I’ve always had an interest in first-aid, to the point I became a Paramedic many years ago. I got tired of that job in short order, especially when you had to carry a person down a 3- or 4-storey walk-up. There is no better way to get a bad back than doing that several times per day. Still, I loved the medical aspects of the work. I then went to work for a doctor who I knew for many years, as his assistant – and this was long before the term Physician’s Assistant came into being. The doctor even had me assisting him in minor outpatient surgeries quite often. Still, I couldn’t keep up with him – 18-to-20 hour days were the norm. I opened my own clinic after that. The majority of our work was doing enlistment physicals for the Illinois National Guard. I got tired of that, too.
Still, to this day, I’m hungry for just about anything written on first-aid, and in these dangerous times we live in, it just makes great sense to learn as much about this subject as possible, in the event you end up being the first responder, when there is no other medical help available. I wrote an article some years back on the Blackhawk medic bag, you can find it in our SurvivalBlog archives. I own several medic bags, that are actually better equipped (supplied) than those you’d find a Combat Medic carrying these days. One medic bag is better-equipped than some small-town ERs are – I don’t carry that one – that is for a static position for medical care, the other is smaller and lighter, but will get the job done just the same.
The IFAK term hasn’t been around all that long. It used to be, we had a small first-aid pouch on our A.L.I.C.E. suspenders, (that I still carry on my A.L.I.C.E. suspenders) and inside of it, we had a single, compression (type) bandage, that would hopefully – at the very least – stop bleeding from a gunshot wound – it was better than nothing back in the day. Today, the military issues the IFAK, and it is much more useful, because it has other advanced life-saving medical gear inside it, and every soldier is required to have this on their gear. While it is quite a bit bigger than the old bandage pouch, with a single bandage in it, it is worth the small extra weight and inconvenience to have it with you. The idea is that, if you are wounded, you use your own medical gear inside the pouch first, and even a medic will use your own first-aid supplies first, if possible, on you.
My youngest daughter, who served in the US Army as a combat medic, was more than a little surprised at the number of soldiers, who didn’t bother to carry their own IFAK with them – that was and is still is a mistake. Matter of fact, during the first year my youngest daughter was a combat medic, even the medics didn’t have a medic bag – when they went afield, they had their medical supplies packed in a cardboard box. What’s up with that? After I heard that, I requested a Blackhawk Products medic bag for her – in short order, other medics purchased the same bag themselves, as well as other more advanced medic bags, with their own funds. Leave it to Uncle Sam, to stupidly not provide our soldiers the gear that they need to function fully!Continue reading“Choosing (or Assembling) Your IFAK, by Pat Cascio”
