Page 144 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Winter 2015

Warfare Combatant Craft Crewmen must have medical Seek guidance from more senior and more experi-
personnel proficient in battlefield trauma care, medical enced colleagues. Also be aware of the need to de-
emergencies in austere environments, prolonged field velop military medical leaders of the future. Find
care, diving medicine, wilderness medicine, altitude mentors; and when it is your time, be a mentor.
medicine, sick call medicine, submarine medicine, pre-
ventive medicine, sports medicine, rehabilitation med- From a personal perspective—Special Operations work
icine, medical operations and planning, and periodic and deployment schedules are very demanding. Be
medical examinations. sure to make time to take care of your faith, your family,
your friends, your teammates, and yourself.
It is probably not feasible for SEAL medics to master
all of those disciplines in addition to maintaining the Future plans?
other skills required of a SEAL operator. Success lies The Department of Defense’s Joint Trauma System
in planning for the right mix of physicians, physician (JTS) has a superb team that has made remarkable
assistants, Medical Service Corps officers, Corpsmen, progress in reducing mortality and morbidity in our
and SEAL medics to ensure that all of these areas are country’s combat casualties. It’s an honor and a bless-
covered by the medical personnel most qualified to ing for me to be working presently with this dedicated
perform them. group of professionals. My current plan is to stay on
the JTS team and to continue to work with them to
Any other current work aims? improve combat casualty care. I’m also looking forward
Fourteen years of conflict have enabled the US Mili- to spending an increasing amount of time with my wife
tary and its coalition partners to make remarkable and best friend, Debbie, our four wonderful children,
advances in trauma care, but we have still not suc- and their great families, as well as the extended Butler
ceeded in translating these improvements in trauma family.
care evenly throughout our country’s combat forces.
That needs to be accomplished in order to ensure that Closing thoughts for the
every US Service member wounded in combat receives operational medicine community?
the best possible care. Never forget the sacrifices that our country’s warriors
make to defend our lives and our freedoms. They are
We also need to ensure that these advances in trauma counting on military medicine to provide them with the
care will be preserved by military medicine so that they best care possible if they are wounded in combat. We
will be of continued benefit to our country’s Warriors must live up to that trust every day.
and not have to be redeveloped in future wars. Many
of the advances in trauma care in wars past were not E-mail exchanges, including documents, have been condensed
sustained during the ensuing peace intervals.
and edited.
Last, inasmuch as possible, we need to work with civil- The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private
ian medical leaders to ensure that advances in trauma views of the author and are not to be construed as official or
care are effectively translated to the civilian sector. At as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the
the time of this interview, there continue to be inci- Department of Defense.
dents of US civilians bleeding to death unnecessarily
from limb hemorrhage caused by gunshot wounds or
motor vehicle crashes.

Any guidance for the operational medicine
community on life–work balance?
On the professional side—find a way to make a differ-
ence. Pick one of the current challenges in Special Ops
medicine and make it your personal goal to develop a
way to effectively deal with it.

132 Journal of Special Operations Medicine Volume 15, Edition 4/Winter 2015