Blue Alpha Gear Tourniquet Holder
One of the simplest lifesaving devices you can carry is a tourniquet. We have moved to a point where tourniquets are well accepted by most people. It used to be that tourniquets were scary and should not be used and, if used, only as a last resort. Now anyone that has taken a modern “tactical” medicine class has learned that tourniquets can be the first resort.
Since we have moved into acceptance, the next hurdle is getting people to carry a tourniquet on their person. If an injury requires a tourniquet, it needs that tourniquet RIGHT NOW, not a few minutes from now (e.g. once you figure out where you stashed it).
You don’t need to run around with a full trauma kit on your person and realistically do not have the room unless your normal EDC is a plate carrier or something. A tourniquet holder is a good compromise.
How should you carry a tourniquet?
There are a few different ways to carry a tourniquet. How you dress determines what form that will be best. No matter how you carry it, you want at least one tourniquet readily available in some kind of tourniquet holder.
If you run plate carriers, you may go old school and use rubber bands to secure the tourniquet to the PALS webbing ladder. Maybe you learned that exposing it to UV light and an unrestricted environment is bad, so you upgraded to a pouch.
Maybe you run a duty belt (or EDC belt for your concealed carry). If you need to mount to a belt, you have different constraints and may consider one of the holster options.
Maybe your clothing is tight around the waist, and you don’t want to “print” strange objects around your midsection, so you put your EDC medical gear in an ankle holster.
A "strap" tourniquet holder
Enter the Blue Alpha Tourniquet Holder. It is based on a strapped design–a thin, rigid plate with cutouts for several attachment options. It sports generous elastic loops for the tourniquet and a small side loop for something like a permanent marker. It is probably the most quickly accessible tourniquet holder I have used.
The Blue Alpha Tourniquet Holder also allows for many mounting options and even an optional “dangler” for slinging below your chest rig if that is your jam.
Easy removal
You just grab the tourniquet and pull it free from the elastic loop. That’s it. No buckles to release, no twist locks to defeat, no straps to undo.
Molle Compatible
The Tourniquet Holder is MOLLE compatible via a laddered strap sewn into the rear of the hard plate. This strap has laser-cut slots every half inch for fine-tuning and working with non-mil-spec grids (like the 5.11 Vehicle Hex Grid) or belts. It will take up 3 vertical MOLLE grids if you fully thread it.
Belt mounting options
The holder has a couple of 1-inch wide straps for mounting horizontally on your belt. The belt mount is probably one of the more common and low-profile options.
If you want to mount vertically on your belt, holster style, you simply use the sewn-in strap for mounting to PALS.
Other mount methods?
The loops used for mounting on the belt are also great for attaching to the roof liner of a vehicle or if you have a dash cover that is “loop” material. Or really any “loop” panel. You can just slap the tourniquet holder in place, and it won’t move.
Did you say "Dangler"?
Danglers are all the new rage. As plate carriers have become smaller and more slimline, we have lost a lot of the surface area to mount MOLLE platform items–maybe you can fit an admin pouch and a couple of magazines. The solution is to hang stuff off the bottom (kind of like dingle balls on car roof liners). If you need to do this, you can order an optional Dangler panel at the time of order.
Cheech and Chong ran danglers…
The dangler panel straps use the same slots in the back plate that the belt loops do.
An EDC med pouch does't have to be an IFAK
Unless you are some kind of operator (or LARP as one), your actual EDC is likely pretty minimal. This means you probably are not carrying a massive kit on you. At the very least, your lifesaving equipment should include a tourniquet, chest seals, and a brick of compressed gauze.
The Blue Alpha Tourniquet Holder is designed to be small and compact, so you will not be able to fit all of those minimal items in one unit. However, the tourniquet holders are small, and I can easily fit a couple on my belt if I want to carry other items..
Yes, I am violating the intention of a “tourniquet holder,” but I can fit a folded chest seal and a brick of compressed gauze in one and a tourniquet in another–that gives me a lot of options. And those elastic loops can fit more than just a tourniquet if you are creative enough.
Which tourniquet should I run?
Your choice of a tourniquet will determine if you have room to fit anything else. If you run a CAT tourniquet or a SAM-XT, you will only be able to fit the tourniquet. If you lean toward the SOF-T, you can fit a folded-over chest seal in the larger of the two elastic loops.
If you want the “no fuss” option, you can buy a CAT tourniquet with the TQ holder directly on Blue Alpha’s website.
Worthy addition
The Blue Alpha Tourniquet Holder is a versatile way to hold an essential piece of lifesaving gear. It is made in the USA and even comes in black Multicam! I have started carrying my essentials this way–it is a great addition to my everyday carry when I am in “dirt bag” mode (wearing shorts, a baggy shirt, and sandals).
I normally run an ankle holster when I am forced to wear long pants. But the strap tourniquet holder has earned a place in my kit. The elastic band will fit all of the common CoTCCC-approved tourniquets. It is low profile. Once the straps are secure, you won’t notice it–it doesn’t move.
About Tom Rader
Tom is a former Navy Corpsman that spent some time bumbling around the deserts of Iraq with a Marine Recon unit, kicking in tent flaps and harassing sheep. Before that, he was a paramedic somewhere in DFW, also doing some Executive Protection work between shifts. Now that those exciting days are behind him, he has embraced his inner “Warrior Hippie,” and assaults 14ers in his sandals, and engages in rucking adventure challenges while consuming copious water. To fund these adventures, he writes all manner of content (having also held editor positions at several publications) and teaches wilderness medicine and off-road skills. He hopes that his posts will help you find the gear that will survive whatever you can throw at it (and the training to use it). Learn from his mistakes–he is known (in certain circles) for his curse…ahem, ability…to find the breaking point of anything. You can follow him at https://linktr.ee/docrader.
About Blue Alpha
Blue Alpha is based in Newnan, Georgia and we are committed to producing American-made products of the highest quality with the best customer service. We make our products for, and deeply appreciate, all responsible gun owners, law enforcement, military, and others who help make the world a better place. Check out our highly popular EDC belt and battle belt.