GRP 55-First and foremost I want to send my condolences to the family of Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Cooper Dayton, 42. Dayton is the first American service member to die to fight the Islamic State in Syria was a decorated and highly experienced Navy explosive ordnance disposal specialist.

On with me for this podcast is Australian SAS Major Dr. Dan Pronk. Dan did multiple deployments and was the regimental medical officer for both 2 commandos and SASR (Special Air Service Regiment). Dr. Dan completed his medical schooling on an Army scholarship and served the majority of his military career with Special Operations Units, including four tours of Afghanistan and over 100 combat missions. Dr. Dan was awarded the Commendation for Distinguished Service for his conduct in action on his second tour of Afghanistan. We discuss bleeding control, how to treat internal bleeding, and prolonged field care. Major Pronk is the Medical Director for Tac Med Australia which provides training for civilians, military, and police tactical units in Australia. Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

John: Can you share a deployment story with the audience?

Major Pronk: We'd been given the role of hitting a target in a known enemy stronghold. We went in with a significant force. The 160th SOAR dropped us in. We decided we'd land right on target and assessed that we would get engaged once we hit the deck. We ripped off the back and ran towards this target village. We had our compounds of interests pre-designated and within 30 seconds of landing, we got engaged by machine gun fire. We didn't sustain any serious casualties on the first night. We stayed on target for over 48 hours. It was near constant combat. They were probing us to assess where we were at. The second day we got into close quarters combat. Sustained some casualties but nothing too serious. We had a small detachment moving forward to clear a couple of machine gun positions. One our guys stepped on an IED. We put together a quick reaction force and got to them. I and another medic worked on him, unfortunately, he didn't make it. We lost our mate there. A fantastic warrior.

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