Soldiers are trained to kill more people in war
The US military is learning from mistakes made in other conflicts. At the underground training center in Ft. Hood, the Army’s 1st Medical Brigade simulates multiple casualties.
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FORT HOOD, TX – This week, the 1st Medical Brigade of the III Armored Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, held a training exercise called “Operation Silver Lightning.”
The exercise, according to the 1st Medical Brigade, “is designed to simulate the challenges of providing advanced medical care in a hostile, large-scale combat environment.”
Between March 23 and April 1, the 1st Medical Brigade operated as an arm of the Army Health System. Army medics, ophthalmologists, doctors, veterinarians, and other medical personnel simulated a high-fatality combat scenario in a tunnel beneath the Fort Hood base.
This week, Fox News took a closer look at how this training program was implemented.
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Soldiers train the wounded, or participants during an exercise at Fort Hood. (Fox News)
“So the medical community has understood that you can’t set up a multi-tent hospital that takes up four or five acres, up to 15 acres and still provide that world-class care, above ground,” said Col. Kamil Sztalkoper, public affairs director of the III Armored Corps.
Sztalkoper said the change was driven in part by the drone warfare seen in the war in Ukraine.
300 soldiers here and work on fake wounded soldiers to train. (Fox News)
“We’ve got to disperse, number one. And then we hide in plain sight, number two. So dispersal uses a lot of different types of places. Hiding in plain sight could be in a building, in a warehouse, or here. Using one of our unique training facilities that was designed in the 1940s. It was used in the 1950s to place nuclear and atomic weapons,” Fox Newskoper said.
The tunnels have since been disconnected and cleared for use as a training facility – in this case, an underground hospital. Sztalkoper said several miles of corridors are used as “emergency room, operating room, vet, optometry. [and] clinics,” allowing the military to avoid what he described as an increase in the drone threat seen in Ukraine.
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During this exercise, about 300 soldiers and participants portraying wounded soldiers ran through various evacuation points and medical exercises, the soldiers rushed the wounded from the helicopter to the military vehicle and put them in the tunnel.
Combat medics are then trained to treat wounded soldiers, or, role players. Each of the wounded simulated the pain and symptoms of a possible battlefield injury.
Soldiers as actors act out the pain and suffering of wounds on the battlefield. (Fox News)
“Actually, the problem they have is to control how they deal with all this with what they have,” said Col. Brad Franklin, deputy commander of the 1st Medical Brigade.
Franklin, who also works as a senior nurse, said she encountered similar challenges in real life.
“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 doctors and there are more patients than you can handle,” said Franklin. “So it forces them to test, reverse and take care of the injured.”
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In addition to military therapy, K-9s and their handlers are also trained in this mission. Further down the dark tunnel, the vets worked on the injured K-9, while the handler was treated for similar injuries across the room.
Lt. Col. Cynthia Fallness, the commander of the 43rd Medical Detachment that provides veterinary medical assistance, said that the personnel conducting the training are doctor-level veterinarians.
“In this case, it’s a traumatic fracture, a combined fracture of the hind limb. And the dog has a chest wound as well, he’s having trouble breathing because there’s a traumatic injury to the 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 casualties in war, such as evacuating the wounded (Fox News)
Amidst the vast array of training for military medics, one medic says his role in the military is more than just a job.
“My grandfather served in World War II as a combat medic,” William Rothwell, a combat medic with the 1st Medical Brigade, told Fox News. “He went into Normandy, I believe, after pushing off Omaha Beach.”
Rothwell, a native of Boston, never met his grandfather, but he heard stories from his father.
“How brutal it was, how difficult it was. Medicine at that time was not that good. So treating patients was painful in some ways.”
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In this training, Rothwell gets that real-world medical combat experience before stepping onto the battlefield.
“The stories of how much he cared and how willing he was to go, you know, a mile or more to make sure he could get his brothers home … really touched me,” Rothwell said. “So that’s how I feel about this situation.”
