Risk Management Magazine

Combatives training is an important part of being a prepared Soldier. It provides the skills to help you protect yourself, as well as your comrades, in combat. Unfortunately, this training can sometimes take Soldiers out of the fight if they don’t take the proper precautions.

There I was — right in the middle of all the action as the 101st Airborne Division rolled through Iraq in its quest to remove Saddam Hussein from power. As dramatic as that may sound, we also did a lot of uninteresting tasks during my time in Iraq, such as setting up assembly areas in the middle of the desert.

As a Soldier today, you are neither poorly trained nor poorly equipped, nor are you lacking caring leaders. So why bother writing about cold injuries? Unfortunately, it’s because they continue to happen, even though they are preventable.