Page 144 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Winter 2016
P. 144
from the
NATO SOF SurgeonTO SOF Surgeon
NA
reetings from NATO Special Op- participants. The RWS provided critical
Gerations Headquarters (NSHQ) in Michael Cohen, MDMD discussion and input that is being used
Michael Cohen,
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers COL/OF-5, MC, FS, USA ACOL/OF-5, MC, FS, USA A to generate the NATO SOST handbook.
Europe (SHAPE), Belgium. First and fore-
most, I would like to thank the outgoing NATO Special OperationsNATO Special Operations Human Performance will be the topic
Medical Advisor, COL Michael Henry, Headquarters for the next RWS, with a focus on de-
Medical Advisor/
for his dedicated service and monumen- Command Surgeon veloping models that can be applied
tal contributions to this organization and throughout the NATO Alliance. The
NATO Special Operations Forces (SOF) medicine. The interest in this topic is already quite high and we are
magnitude of these contributions is demonstrated in the putting together an informative, science-based program
lasting effects on training, education, relationship build- that will definitely generate the appropriate discussions
ing, synchronization of efforts across the Alliance, and to create solutions for this challenging topic.
in operational and tactical medical support. A personal
thanks for a smooth transition and handover of an excep- The popularity of the SOF ACME continues to acceler-
tional medical section. ate. We just completed our first 2-week Special Opera-
tions Medical Planning and Support Course. This course
The Spring Special Operations Forces Medicine Expert was created in response to feedback from the 1-week
Panel (SOFMEP) and Research Workshop (RWS) were Special Operations Medical Leaders Course requesting
conducted at University College Cork (UCC) in June. more in-depth training and exercises. The course pro-
The SOFMEP focused on the NATO Special Operations vided students with improved medical planning and
Combat Medic Sustainment Course. I am writing this support capabilities. The final exercise involved plan-
on the eve of the start of the first course to be conducted ning for medical support for a simultaneous land and sea
here at the SOF Allied Center for Medical Education Special Operations mission. The students competently
(ACME), run in conjunction with UCC. Our collabo- demonstrated the ability to medically support complex
ration with UCC will provide enormous benefits. In Special Operations missions. Overall, 11 courses were
addition to having access to an outstanding academic conducted by the SOF ACME during the first 6 months
institution and faculty, we will have the opportunity to of 2016, with a total of 116 students representing 23
award college credits for NATO SOF Medicine Devel- nations. Two of these courses were conducted by mobile
opment Initiative courses that can be applied toward a training teams in Bulgaria and Georgia. Additionally,
bachelor’s degree. nations come to the ACME to conduct their own train-
ing using our facilities and simulation equipment. The
The SOFMEP and RWS focused on far-forward care— first 6 months of 2016 saw nine national training events
specifically the use of whole blood on the battlefield, involving 146 students.
and implementation and use of Special Operations Sur-
gical Teams (SOSTs). Two practical workshops were Operationally, we are in the process of preparing our
conducted on these topics. The Senior Medical Officer medical operations and Role 1 support to NSHQ Spe-
of Norway Naval Special Operations conducted a highly cial Operations Component Command for their as-
educational workshop on blood use in far-forward care. sumption of NATO Response Force in 2017. We look
Three senior surgeons from Germany and the United forward to the challenge of adding an operational and
Kingdom conducted a damage-control surgery work- tactical capability to our mission and continuing our ef-
shop in which cadaver specimens were used to train forts to improve medical capabilities and interoperabil-
five different damage-control surgical procedures to ity in support of NATO SOF Commanders.
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