Fort Hood soldiers train underground for battlefield medical emergencies
Soldiers train for mass casualties in war
The US military is learning from mistakes made from other conflicts. At an underground training facility in Ft. Hood, the Army’s 1st Medical Brigade, simulates mass casualties in combat.
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FORT HOOD, Texas – This week, the III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas. The Armored Corps’ 1st Medical Brigade conducted a training exercise called “Operation Silver Lightning”.
According to the 1st Medical Brigade, the exercise was “designed to simulate the challenges of providing advanced medical care in a contested, large-scale combat environment.”
Between March 23 and April 1, the 1st Medical Brigade operated the tactical arm of the Army Medical System. Combat medics, ophthalmologists, doctors, veterinarians and other medical personnel simulated a mass casualty event under combat conditions in underground tunnels at the Fort Hood base.
This week, Fox News took a closer look at how this educational app is being implemented.
UKRAINIAN PROCESS SIGNALS ON US SECURITY GUARANTEES
Soldiers or role players training on casualties during a training exercise at Fort Hood. (Fox News)
“So the medics realized that you can’t set up a multi-tent field hospital that covers four or five sites, is up to 15 acres, and provides world-class care,” said Col. Kamil Sztalkoper, III Armored Corps’ public affairs manager.
Sztalkoper said this shift was partly due to drone warfare observed in the war in Ukraine.
300 soldiers are treating and working on mock injured soldiers for a training exercise. (Fox News)
“We need to disperse, number one. And then hiding in plain sight is number two. So dispersing means using multiple different locations. Hiding in plain sight could be in a building, in a warehouse, here, using one of our unique training facilities that was designed in the 1940s. It was used in the 1950s to house nuclear and atomic weapons,” Sztalkoper told Fox News.
The tunnels have since been decommissioned and cleared for use as a training facility (in this case, an underground field hospital). Sztalkoper said several kilometers of tunnels were used as “triage emergency room, operating room, veterinary, optometry” [and] clinics” allow troops to avoid what he describes as the growing drone threat observed in Ukraine.
US ARMY USE INFLUENCERS FOR RECRUITMENT
During this exercise, approximately 300 soldiers and role players portraying wounded troops went through different evacuation and medical drills; soldiers carried the wounded from the helicopter to the military medical vehicle and from there to the tunnels.
Combat medics are then trained to treat injured soldiers or role players. Each of the wounded mimicked the pain and symptoms of an injury that might occur on the battlefield.
As role players, soldiers mimic the pain and injury of wounds on the battlefield. (Fox News)
“The real dilemma for them is managing how to deal with all of this with what they have,” said Col. Brad Franklin, 1st Medical Brigade deputy commander.
Franklin, who also served as a head nurse, said she faced similar challenges in real-world operations.
“Knowing that you don’t have enough people, you don’t have enough surgeons, you don’t have enough nurses, you don’t have enough healthcare workers and there are more patients than you can handle,” Franklin said. “So it forces them to triage, reverse triage, and take care of those casualties.”
WORLD WAR II VETERAN SHARES HIS SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
In addition to treating soldiers, K-9s and their handlers also receive training in this exercise. Further down a dark tunnel, veterinarians work on an injured simulated K-9 while the handler is treated for simulated injuries on the other side of the room.
Lt. Col. Cynthia Fallness, commander of the 43rd Medical Detachment, which provides veterinary service support, said the personnel conducting this training are doctoral-level veterinarians.
“In this case, there is a traumatic fracture, a compound fracture of the hind leg. There is also a wound on the dog’s chest, and he also has difficulty breathing because he has a traumatic injury to his mouth,” Fallness said.
“So these are our diesel dogs,” he said of the fake K-9 on the operating table.
Soldiers practice all aspects of mass casualty combat such as evacuating the wounded (Fox News)
Among dozens of combat medic training, one doctor says his role in the military is more than a job.
“My grandfather actually served as a combat medic in World War II,” William Rothwell, a combat medic with the 1st Medical Brigade, told Fox News. “I think he went to Normandy after the Omaha Beach raid.”
Rothwell, a Boston native, never met his grandfather but heard stories from his father.
“How brutal it was, how harsh it was. Medicine wasn’t that good back then. So it was a little bit traumatic dealing with patients.”
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In this training, Rothwell gains real-world medical warfare experience before stepping onto the battlefield.
“I was really moved by the stories of how much he cared and was willing to go to make sure he could get his siblings home,” Rothwell said. “That’s how I feel in this situation.”
