Sgt. Shawn Heitzman, 233rd Transportation Company truck driver, sits in the driver's seat of the HEAT trainer Jan. 23 at Camp Arifjan as it simulates a Humvee at a 30-degree angle before rolling over. The HEAT simulations program teaches servicemembers about roll-over conditions, avoidance and immediate action taken after one has occurred. (Spc. Robert Adams)
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (Army News Service, Jan. 26, 2006) – A new training device is being developed by Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait to reduce or eliminate injury or death suffered by troops involved in Humvee rollovers in theater.
The device evolved from a comment by then-commander of U.S.
Forces Command, Gen. Larry Ellis, following the deaths of three Soldiers Dec. 8, 2003, when their Stryker overturned into a canal, said Chief Warrant Officer Rik Cox, FORSCOM safety officer.
HEAT based on `Dunker’
“The aviators train on the Dilbert Dunker, why can’t we do something like that for the ground troops?” Ellis said, according to Cox.
That comment was the impetus for the FORSCOM Safety Office to investigate expanding the helicopter egress training device into a ground-based program called the Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer or HEAT, said Cox, HEAT FORSCOM project organizer.
Cox got the go-ahead in March 2005 to develop a device based on the Dilbert Dunker, a Navy Aviator training device that teaches aircrews how to escape following a ditching at sea. He said the first Soldier was hanging upside down from his seatbelt in the first HEAT prototype built by U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers in September 2005.
AMC techs in Kuwait upgrade trainer
With a photo of the first prototype, Forward Repair Activity, Army Materiel Command technicians in Kuwait decided to take the idea and immediately design an upgraded prototype here in Kuwait.
“We were presented with an idea to save troops’ lives,” said Christopher Turner, Forward Repair Activity, Army Materiel Command.
To build the first prototype in theater, Turner and Rickey Cline, FRA, AMC, acquired the Humvee shell, gear boxes and stand from the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office and the retrograde yard and built it in one month.
The equipment wasn’t going to be used; everything was used parts, so this saved the Army a lot of time and money to put together, Kline said.
CFLCC now using prototype
CFLCC is now using the prototype as a proactive measure to prevent future rollover accidents by applying the HEAT concept to train Soldiers in Kuwait and, eventually, to troops all over the Middle East region.
The newly-built HEAT prototype is composed of a suspended Humvee cab mounted to an elevated M-1 engine maintenance stand raised on a trailer. The attached motor can turn the device 180 degrees in either direction in six seconds to simulate a humvee rolling over.
“We took something that didn’t exist in theater and made it work,” Turner said. “We are now testing it to make sure it is going to save a Soldier’s life, which is what this is all about.”
250 rollover injuries in OIF
Approximately 250 Soldiers have been severely injured in rollovers since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Another prototype is currently in production and will be tweaked pending any suggestions from trainers who have tested the initial model. In the near future, six HEAT simulators will be located at camps throughout Kuwait to train Soldiers.
Troops got the opportunity to test out the simulator Jan. 23 at Camp Arifjan in conjunction with the CFLCC commanding general’s quarterly safety conference.
“I’d make it mandatory for everybody because when you roll up north you never know what will happen,” said Sgt. Jeffery Johnson, 233rd Transportation Company truck driver.
Johnson is a master driver and will eventually train his Soldiers on the same simulator.
“The training helps you get out of the truck quickly,” Johnson said. “It helps you realize that when you lose your bearing, you have to keep calm.”
Turning expectations upside down
After Soldiers fasten their seat belts, the operator first turns the Humvee in either direction 30 degrees to simulate the point when it is expected to rollover, Cox said.
The Humvee will then complete a 180-degree turn to suspend it upside down.
“When you actually hang upside down from your seatbelt while wearing full battle rattle, the seed is planted that the seatbelt just might save your face in a real accident,” Cox said.
“It sends a blood rush to your head,” Johnson said. “When you release your seatbelt you fall on your head, you get jammed, and you have to wiggle your way out.”
Soldiers must unfasten themselves and work together to get a door open and exit to safety as quick as possible.
Training cuts response to fraction
“Repeated training will take a crew from fumbling their way out of the vehicle in 45 to 90 seconds to having all four members of the crew outside the vehicle ready to engage the enemy in six seconds,” Cox said.
Service members going through the HEAT program will also learn about rollover conditions, avoidance and preventive checks and safety measures.
The training will build upon current Humvee training, enhanced and safe drivers training courses, and existing in-unit rollover drill training.
“The most important part of HEAT is to educate our Soldiers so they will avoid getting into a rollover situation,” said Col. John Gallagher, CFLCC Army Reserve Affairs chief of staff and project coordinator for the development of HEAT simulations. “Then they will have the confidence to react as they were trained and survive.”
“Cox saw a problem and did something about it,” Gallagher said. “That fact alone will save countless lives in the future.”
(Editor’s note: Information provided by the Coalition Forces Land Component Command Public Affairs.)
Sgt. Jeffery Johnson, 233rd Transportation Company truck driver, crawls out of the Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer Jan. 23 at Camp Arifjan. The HEAT simulations program teaches servicemembers about roll-over conditions, avoidance and immediate action taken after one has occurred.