Do snipers have any medical ability in real life?

[Aculaud 0]

Could a sniper in real life heal his/her own wounds, or at least field bandage them so they could still maintain a degree of functionality?

[Tex -USMC- 0]

[ralphwiggum 6]

can you put band-aid on your self when you cut yourself?

i think basic first aid can be done...to certain extent...

[Aculaud 0]

I just need to know if any have ever been known to carry first aid kits, thats all.

[Col. Kurtz 0]

If they were going in solo, they would most definitly by my reckoning. Common scense. If your on your own and you dont have a medic with you and you cant get a chopper to take you out, if you get shot, you have to be able to do something about it.

[cam0flage 0]

I've been trained to be a sniper in the Finnish Defence Forces, I got this list on my desk about equipment we carry with us during crisis. Item number four is a medical kit. About the training, I only got the basic medical training the others got too. Nothing special.

[DarkLight 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Col. Kurtz @ Sep. 07 2002,10:39)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">If they were going in solo, they would most definitly by my reckoning. Common scense. If your on your own and you dont have a medic with you and you cant get a chopper to take you out, if you get shot, you have to be able to do something about it.<span id='postcolor'>

Hmmm, if you get shot, is it possible to take care of the wound with just a medical kit?

Don't you have to remove the bullet and stuff like that?

[Mister Frag 0]

If you get shot, it will likely be with a rifle bullet. Those very rarely stay inside the victim.

[Longinius 1]

Some people here do not seem to understand how bullet wounds or injures are really treated. They are not magically healed somehow. And no, a person cannot operate himself back to 100% status again. Most of the time whoever it is will just bind the wound and it will be dealt with by a proper medic or at a hospital. All you do is put on a field dressing, possibly clean it first depending on the situation. Then you'd have to take it from there.

[Sam Samson 0]

well.

you might actually be able to continue to operate if you got shot with some plastic coated titanium bullet like most courteous beckwith-boys use in their marvellous car-15s.

but if you got hit by, say, a clipped 7.62, you will be incapacitated to the point of not being able to think clearly. those bullets damage your innards severely and the exit-wounds consist of a big crater on the side of your body on which the bullet came out and journeyed on.

other folks will drag you to some quiet spot where you will lie in your blood until some medic fidgets around on you, probably haphazardly, because he's nervous himself.

after the firefight you will be flown or wheeled out to the next serious mash.

don't get into this business until you know exactly why (should you think about joining an active combat unit).

[Cloney 0]

I take it you aren't a recruiter Mr. Samson?

[eh remraf 0]

It's all in relative proportion on how much hydrostatic shock that the bullet did when creating the entrance wound, the cannal, and the exit wound. Hydrostatic shock is the death of tissue caused by tissue reforming after a bullet enters the body and exits, or simply stays. So, the bigger, and faster the bullet goes, the more hydrostatic shock can occur. However, it gets complicated when you measure size and velocity. Not every 7.62er will create more hydrostatic shock than a 5.56er round. The same with comparing the .50 BMG to the 9x90. Then you get into the hollow point, soft point, jacketed, glaser, flachette, ect. ect. Each round has it's own hydrostatic shock characteristic.

[Mister Frag 0]

Hydrostatic shock is most devastating to the nervous system -- that is why a hit from a high-velocity rifle round to the torso can cause the brain to shut down long before the person would pass out from blood loss.

Even if the central nervous system doesn't shut down, rifle rounds still cause huge temporary stretch cavities which will result in massive internal bleeding.

[Jester983 0]

I know snipers sometimes have spotters on missions. So wouldnt the spotter have medical abilitys?

[ralphwiggum 6]

2 is better than one, so i guess spotter should know about it too...although he also maybe in trouble.

[Col. Kurtz 0]

Every soldier is taught the basics of first aid, hell, they even taught it to us in army cadets! Bandaging yourself is the first step. If you can do that, you will survive longer if you just sit there and say 'oh, I have a bullet hole in me, but Im not going to do anything about it"

[Oligo 1]

If a bullet very superficially grazes somebody, I think it can be treated by any normal person with a band-aid or a bandage. But if it is a proper hit and there is nastiness like ruptured blood vessels, shredded meat, shattered bone, shocked tissue and mangled nerves... well, you'll probably just lie there and scream for your comrades and for your mother (or for your wife if you're older), while your friends franticly administer morphine and try to press that squirting artery shut.

For a nice demonstration of combat wounds, see movies like Blackhawk Down or (yuck) Saving Private Ryan.

They should seriously overhaul the damage systems of first person shooters.

[Col. Kurtz 0]

I totaly agree. I am sick of shooting people, and them screaming for a split second them running around fine with cheats wounds in SP games. In MP, they dont evern scream or fall down or anything. Some games like Soldier of Fortune 2 have ssytem were as soldiers that have for example been shot in both legs might limp, but in real life, how many soldier would still be fighting with a bullet hole in theri guts?

[Aculaud 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Oligo @ Sep. 10 2002,02:13)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">For a nice demonstration of combat wounds, see movies like Blackhawk Down or (yuck) Saving Private Ryan.

They should seriously overhaul the damage systems of first person shooters.<span id='postcolor'>

Or "We Were Soldiers" with Mel Gibson. Christ, that was intense!

And i agree. Even in Ghost Recon, you can peg someone in the upper body up to three times before they die with a 7.62mm round. Iv even nailed someone in the Head\Neck area with one and they didnt die.