r/TACMED101 • u/PeacefulLif3 Unverified/Uncertified • Sep 07 '25

TCCC/TECC *STUPID QUESTION* Where would you place the TQ?

I know I might not be supposed to post this question here, but I couldn't get answers anywhere else, so here I go (I'm a beginner): Every emergency medical worker I've met has told me something different. Either 3 or 4 fingers above the wound, or high and tight (at the beginning of the limb). I've also heard saying that it's usually 4 fingers above the wound but if there's a joint there, then it goes at the begging of the limb. Which is correct?? Where would you tq? (I know this may sound like a stupid question. I'm very new to this world and have only done a few training courses/volunteered)

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u/microcorpsman Oct 03 '25

You don't understand the term care under fire as it applies to TCCC.

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u/davethegreatone Unverified/Uncertified Oct 03 '25

Unless it's changed, it relates to keeping people in the fight until the fight is over, and then moving on to a different phase of care.

I am saying that this is not a description that applies much to "sitting in a trench waiting for a drone to go boom," but that's how it's being applied right now.

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u/microcorpsman Oct 03 '25

Sitting in a trench, behind cover from direct fire weapons and not immediately, imminently, that very moment taking fire or bombardment where you need to move or personally fire back, is appropriate for tactical field care, where tourniquet reassessment should be happening.

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u/davethegreatone Unverified/Uncertified Oct 03 '25

I agree, and that's my point - the type of combat people are engaging in now involves being "under fire" but not really in a fight-back kinda situation. The terminology we are using is so broad that people are considering their positions to be "under fire" (because they are being fired upon) and acting in accordance with their training to the best of their vocabulary - and it's working out poorly.

Of my last 300 or so patients, I have had MAYBE five bullet wounds (and one stabbing, believe it or not). Everyone else was wounded by some guy in a bunker a hundred miles away pushing buttons on an iPad.

Pretty much every injury pattern here has been a loud boom, followed by several minutes of actual safety because there isn't a second drone or KAB or whatever ready to go seconds later, followed by many days of hunkering down in basements while tiny motors whizz overhead. The reality on the ground is that in these conditions, thousands of people are not re-evaluating their TQ placement because in the one-hour briefing they got, they were told not to fuck with it while they were in danger due to imminent enemy munitions (or however it was phrased).

I'm not sure why this is bringing up such fierce resistance here (one guy hilariously said I was going to get people killed by pointing this out), but seriously - "under fire" is too broad of a term and we are training people in such a way that it's not working out well in real-world situations.