Page 3 - JSOM Winter 2018

For the past decade, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine has proudly recognized indi-
viduals and organizations that carry on the legacy of Major Jonathan Letterman’s innovation
and service to wounded warriors with the Letterman Award.

ONATHAN LETTERMAN was a Soldier, a surgeon, a lo- brought about landmark changes in the Army’s Combat Life-
gistician and a visionary. This year the National Museum saver Program and has been in the forefront of advancing the
Jof Civil War Medicine is honored to present the Major understanding and treatment of combat airway injuries. COL
Jonathan Letterman Medical Excellence Award to two indi- Mabry currently serves as the Command Surgeon for the Joint
viduals who exhibit incredible vision and fostered innovation Special Operations Command.
in different areas of military medicine. One who literally be-
gan his career on the front lines delivering combat casualty INDIVIDUAL AWARD RECIPIENT
care and then went on to become a military physician who
introduced system wide life-saving innovations. COL Robert (Bob) Mabry
For the past decade, the National Museum of Civil War Medi- The well-known Blackhawk Down military
cine has proudly recognized individuals and organizations that battle in Somalia in 1993, when a U.S. Army
carry on the legacy of Major Jonathan Letterman’s innovation helicopter crashed in Mogadishu, was a turn-
and service to wounded warriors with the Letterman Award. ing point in Col. Robert (Bob) Mabry’s life. “I
It is given to those that are leading innovative efforts in battle- was the medic at crash site one. This event gal-
field care, prosthetic technology, improving patient outcomes vanized me to become a doctor and dedicate
of the severely wounded, or leveraging cutting edge medical myself to improving the care of those we send
technology in new ways. into harm’s way. I essentially committed the rest of my adult
professional life to that cause.”
Last year the 10th Annual Major Jonathan Letterman Medi-
cal Excellence Award went to Captain Frank K. Butler, (USN In a scenario familiar to everyone who has read the book or
Ret), who has served as a Navy SEAL, as an innovator and saw the movie “Blackhawk Dawn,” then SFC Mabry’s creativ-
leader in Navy and civilian dive medicine, and as the driving ity, courage, and quick thinking during the battle of Mogadi-
force of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), which has shu were responsible for saving a number of American lives in
greatly reduced deaths on the battlefield and is now required that action, according to Dr. Frank Butler, a 2017 Letterman
training for everyone in the US Military. Medical Excellence Award recipient who nominated him for
the honor.
In his current position at the Joint Trauma System, Dr But-
ler chairs the Department of Defense’s Committee on Tactical Mabry arrived with a combat rescue team at the location of
Combat Casualty Care, helping to ensure continued optimal a U.S. helicopter shot down in the middle of Mogadishu and
battlefield trauma care for our country’s wounded service men fast-roped down onto the casualty site, where he was sur-
and women. He also serves as co-chair of the Decompression rounded by thousands of heavily armed and hostile citizens
Sickness and Arterial Gas Embolism Treatment Committee for of that city. During the ferocious initial moments of the en-
the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. suing battle, he had the presence of mind to enter a downed
helicopter and take the armor plates from its floor. He then
The 11th Annual Major Jonathan Letterman Medical Excel- placed them strategically around his unit’s position, so that
lence Award was held 11 October 2018 at the Gettysburg Ho- they stopped in-coming small arms fire. Mabry subsequently
tel in historic Gettysburg, PA. This year’s award winners were
COL Robert Mabry, MD, MC, USA and COL Jonathan M.
Kissane, MSC, USA (Ret).
COL Kissane served as a career Army Medical Service Corps
officer and is currently a senior medical logistics consultant to
the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. He
has been recognized as the singular greatest driver of innovation
in the medical logistics. COL Kissane’s knowledge and appre-
ciation of the limitations on forward medical elements led him
to devise creative and highly-effective solutions for medical re-
supply by division and brigade level medics and medical units.
The JSOM would like to take this opportunity to recognize,
COL Mabry, SOMA President 2013–15, who served as a Spe-
cial Forces 18-D medic and was a recipient of the Silver Star
for his actions during the battle of Mogadishu. He contributed
to the development of the Combat Application Tourniquet,
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