Page 160 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Summer 2015

I believe that being self-critical is one of the most im- Use the JSOM as one of the most important tools to tell
portant things about SOF. We are always striving to im- our story to the next generation. Articles do not have to
prove our capability to execute the mission. Never rest be about huge scientific studies. They can be case studies
on your laurels. Look to the next mission and emerging about the singular experiences of SOF medics around
requirements and fix the problem before it can become the world. Think about a situation you were in, whether
a fiasco. in direct action combat or a JCET in the far reaches.
Think about how you wished you had been more pre-
pared for that situation. Think about what you would
Lessons Learned
tell another medic so that he would better prepared for
We have all heard about and read about lessons learned a similar situation. Then start writing it down. Then
over the past decade. Some are very legitimate and submit it. Submit it to the JSOM, submit it to J8/G8
world-moving concepts that need to be propagated. requirements staffers, submit it to the AAR systems. Do
Some amount to what someone did on their summer va- not let your lesson go unlearned!
cation to the war. I question ourselves about what have
we truly learned and what have we done with it. For Final Comments
all the successes of TCCC, as mentioned here, the truth
is that many of the concepts were not really new. They I hand over the responsibility of USSOCOM Senior
were lessons stretching back to World War I and even Enlisted Medical Advisor to the very capable hands of
further back in history. Tourniquets . . . not new. Hypo- SGM F. Bowling. He is coming from being the USASOC
tensive resuscitation . . . not new. Battlefield analgesia SEMA and several years of SF and SMU experience. He
. . . not new. Blood products on the front lines . . . not is very in touch with the lessons learned and emerging
new. Quite frankly, those and many others were lessons requirements of the SOF medic. He has already demon-
learned that did not get learned. strated his willingness to make the SOF requirements
known within our own circles and the larger Depart-
I said this in my first Journal of Special Operations ment of Defense circles. I fully expect him to take things
Medicine (JSOM) submission, and I will say it again to the next level and hope I have set some helpful condi-
now . . . In my opinion, a lesson is not learned until it tions for his success.
is submitted, reviewed, validated, justified, integrated,
standardized, disseminated, documented, institutional- Thank you to those who talked me into taking this job a
ized, resourced, trained, and executed and basically be- few years ago. I hope that I lived up to a smidgen of the
comes the way we always do it. When it is the new habit hype you talked up about me. Thank you to the revo-
for all, then the lesson has been learned. Otherwise, it lutionaries who changed SOF medicine and how we do
was just a random experience of some dude. Many of things. Thank you to the leaders who listened over the
us need to take the time to ensure the lessons we have years about how we needed to change how SOF man-
learned become the new habits. Many of our comrades aged casualties and their role in that change. Thank you
died so that we could learn some of those lessons. We to the generation of medics who have fought this war
need to take it seriously. If the sacrifices as well as the and used the new methodologies with unprecedented
future of SOF mean something to you, then you owe successes and saved our comrades. Most importantly,
it to them and to yourself to take action. It may be as thank you to the next generation of SOF medics and
simple as passing on what you have learned, or it may medical officers who will continue what was started.
require the rewriting of some manual, policy, SOP, or
journal article. We need to document the lessons before I will not stray too far from the patrol base as I take on a
they stray or fade away. It may be an article submitted different role. Please let me know what I can do to assist
to the JSOM, or a new class at the JSOMTC, updat- SOF medicine or an SOF medic out there.
ing field manuals or whatever. It basically comes down
to providing those in the future with reference tools to Take care and God bless!
look back on. We have all picked up some manual or —Monty
SOP that was obviously written by a novice or someone HRMontgomery75@gmail.com
who never did the job. Let’s make sure the future refer-
ences were written by the current experts.

150 Journal of Special Operations Medicine Volume 15, Edition 2/Summer 2015