Combat Casualty Care Course (C4)

C4 is an 8-day training that you will complete at some point residency (the timing varies by residency program). Contained within it is a course on Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS). This entirety of your learning will occur on Camp Bullis - that's right - the same place you did your field training for BOLC! You can think of this course as a "mini-BOLC" with half of the days being death by PowerPoint and the other half being field work. I'm not going to do as much of an in-depth dive as I did for BOLC, since there really isn't that much to it and by the time you do this course, you'll have a decent grasp on Army workings.

Logistics:

You will fly into the San Antonio airport, where you will pick-up your bags and immediately report to the USO that is near the baggage claim. There, you will check-in with the cadre and you will change into your ASU. Yes, as you would imagine, there are like a dozen people changing in the small airport bathroom at the time same. After that, you board a bus and head to your home for the next 7 days. Much like BOLC, you will receive a duffel filled with all of the fun pieces of equipment you remember and more!

I don't want to speak too much on the housing set-up as I hear it varies every once in a while. For me, we stayed in the "huts" for the entirety of the training. Don't let the name fool you, in contrast to the tents of BOLC, these are actual buildings with solid walls, doors and central air. I was told that normally, we would spend the first few days in the huts, then spend the remainder of the time in the same tents as BOLC. I was not going to argue with this change of plan. Also in contrast to BOLC, there are actual showers, latrines and laundry machines. There is a gym with limited hours, but you can get 24 hour access. By far the biggest surprise was the small exchange that had a large amount of everyday necessities and food. There is also an attached Burger King if the rest of this wasn't enough.

Speaking of, due to the training schedule, the majority of your meals will be MREs. About half or more of your breakfasts will be at the DFAC, which isn' half bad. There will also be a fair number of times when you will have time to go to the exchange to grab food for lunch or dinner.

A lot of us, myself included, needed to study for boards during this trip. From my experience, if you didn't have Verizon, you did not have much luck in getting a decent enough connection with which to study.

Packing list:

Much like BOLC, you will receive a packing list of things you should bring. Nothing on the list will surprise you, so I will spare you the reading. BUT! You may want to consider a pillow and a blanket as you will only be supplied with a light sleeping bag. A rolled-up T-shirt worked for me, but you do you!

Training:

The first half of the course, the death by PowerPoint, is exactly as the name suggests. You'll make it through - I believe in you, soldier! After that, the field training is actually fairly enjoyable and relevant to medicine. I don't want to ruin any surprises - there were several notably awesome trainings.