"Display" Aid Station

[TenthA86]

OK guys - I'm looking to swipe the best ideas out there for the upcoming season. How do you lay out your med stuff for visitors?

Here's my layout drawing - what does yours look like?


and here is why I'm not doing anything until Spring! (this was October 20th)



This has been posted for 4 months before I got a response. I'm still curious to see how you do your layouts, so I can steal the best ideas & make them mine!

[docburges]

my layout is always different; but i don't use a small wall tent. I use a maintenance tent. So have some more room to occupy.

greetings from Belgium

[pvtdoc]

that looks cold..brrrr

[Ben]

Hi Tenth,
Sorry, I must have missed this one when you originally posted. Please accept my belated apologies for that!
Your layout looks great, you have managed to incorporate all of the necessary BAS items into a Small Wall Tent, certainly quite a feat. I might try this for some of the smaller events, thanks for sharing it with the Forum.
As Pvt. said above though, that certainly looks cold!
Ben

[TenthA86]

Thanks Ben PvtDoc & DocBurges:

You guys are wimps!! It was only about 10 degrees F below 0 - not cold enough to freeze my issued whiskey, but the plasma had to be kept warm.

I'm getting ready to do an aid station exhibit for the US Air Force Academy next month, and may try the large wall tent for that one. This small wall works well when space is at a premium, or when we have so many different displays up all at once.

There is more room to turn around in a large wall or maintenance tent - I would love to see a drawing of what YOU do! (hint, hint)

[doc ryan]

@TenthA86:

That camp photo is AWESOME! Now that's good re-enactin' weather that I wish we could get here in VA!

My setups are probably not something that people with a lot of gear would want to copy. I don't have any wall tents or anything like that, so I usually improvise everything on the fly. I don't have enough gear to do anything beyond the "ad hoc" level, so temporary aid stations only.

My aid stations are usually of the "makeshift" variety so I use whatever materials are on hand to make them. Shelter halves, ponchos, tree limbs, foliage, tent rope, let-down rope etc. Sometimes they are nothing more than litters on the ground in a well-concealed position. When I do a PTO aid station (Army or FMF corpsman), they're usually more sparse and messy than what you see below. During night tacticals, light discipline is achieved by the old "blanket and flashlight" routine.

Here are some pics of a typical aid station that I'll construct for an event...this one in particular was a Normandy display involving 505th PIR and 325th GIR medics...this one we just popped up over a foxhole.

[TenthA86]

Kudos to Doc Ryan - great job!

I'd like to resurrect this post and look for ideas on layout, etc. for a public display. Photos, drawings, etc - what do YOU do to educate the public? I'm looking for ideas

[littlelotte]

I currently own a GP medium. I am going to set it up as a working "triage" admission ward on one side with paperwork etc. The other half is going to be layed out as a patient ward with the med chests and Plasma/operating things/recovery. We have about 9 cots which will be set up in ward fashion. Two of them will have the plasma bottles hanging above. At least that is my idea, we'll see how it turns out next month.
Thanks,
-Lisa

[Skypig]

PADoc and I use a small wall and fly. It is a work in progress. We are trying to find out what flows best. My wife says it looks like two guys playing in a doll house as we arrange and re-arrange the equipment. But what does she know? Here is a link to some pictures of our last event. http://www.flickr.com/photos/skypig/sets/72157621588988389/show/with/3737628608/

Mike

[TenthA86]

Mike & Lisa - thanks for the feedback.

Mike - yours looks like a Regimental Aid Station with the admin desk, etc. What goes on inside the tent?

Lisa - very cool. I just gave my field hospital setup to Doc Phil in IL - he should be doing something along the same lines, as he now has the OR lights, operating table, X-Ray machine, transfusion pump, suction pump, etc. Maybe you can get together.

Who else is out there? What are you doing?

[Skypig]

What goes on inside the tent, stays inside the tent. Actually, I believe Dirk (PADoc) wants to have the fly area as an admin/walking wounded area, while more serious cases would be treated inside the wall. We need to set up with more space between the two to give more elbow room. The first couple of pictures show it with the litter outside the wall tent. The third or fourth picture shows after we moved it in.

[PAdoc]

We have tried several set ups, thinking each one out as if we were actully working there. The illustration on page 43 in FM8-10 is a good example, but as the text states only an example. With the small wall tent, you cannot get all the equipment inside especially when the sides are rolled down. I really think the best way is to set it up like you think it might work and then go through the motions of actually treating a patient. That is what the real surgeons did.
Yes, our set up is equipped as a headquarters station, but has the staff and tentage of a regular battalion station. A compromise I know, but it allows a smaller mass of canvas to haul around, much less duplication of equipment, and we get the neat MD4 set to play with! Since our goal is to have a toally complete inventory, this compromise is a big help.
I will send more pictures when I figure out how to do it!

[TenthA86]

Mike:

Very well done! Both Bn & Rgt Aid Stations sometimes (frequently?) used small wall tents. My unit (10th Mountain - 10th Med) frequently split the stations up using 2 small wall tents in 2 locations to get twice the impact. Each station got a chest 1 & a chest 2, a lantern kit, a blanket bag and a tent. Then when moving, they would leapfrog each other & always have an functional station open. It also kept the carrys short for the litter bearers, and rapid aid for the troops. (This from a Sr NCO in med section who helped site the aid stations in combat) So what you are doing has some precedent in history.

This same NCO said that - unless the weather was nasty - they worked in the open and treated the wounded as fast as they could. The tent was reserved for nasty wounds, keeping supplies dry and sleeping.

Interesting logistics point - they hauled casualties to the collecting station where the guys got "a wagon-ride" (ambulance) to field hospital behind the Division lines. The carry to the collecting station was usually less than 1/2 mile, but was done on litter carriers, frequently with POWs as bearers. Jeeps were not used unless well under cover, as a jeep attrected too much shell fire.

[sgtpeter]

Mike, Dirk - well done, the displays looks great. Thanks for posting the pics! The ambulance sure looks good next to your display as well!

[Skypig]

Thanks to your friend Bill.