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movement in mountainous terrain to be generally twice as Disclosures
large as that of an MRAP evacuation. The study also validated The authors have indicated they have no financial relation
movement techniques and demonstrated that an ad hoc team ships relevant to this article.
of students could maintain average acceleration well below
those maximums for the vast majority of the time. These gen Author Contributions
eralizations help frame decision making for smallunit leaders JF conceived the study concept. JF and CF devised the study
faced with casualties in austere conditions. If air evacuation design. JF collected the data. JF and CF analyzed the data and
requires delay or if the next level of care is only accessible wrote the manuscript. All authors approved the final version
by dismounted movement, teams in similar terrain can feel of the manuscript.
confident that such a movement could result in similar maxi
mum acceleration as alternative options. In such cases, route References
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litter, the training and cohesion levels of the teams, and the 5. Eiband AM. “Human tolerance to rapidly applied accelerations.”
terrain would all provide additional information when con National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Memo 51959E.
sidering movement options. Last, the described protocol is in Cleveland, OH: National Aeronautics and Space Administration;
expensive and simple, producing no distractions to training or 1959.
operations. Due to these factors, triaxial accelerometers could 6. Steijer F, Lee JHT, Manoucheri N, et al. Responses of the acutely
become an important mechanism for instantaneous feedback injured spinal cord to vibration that simulates transport in helicop
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Acknowledgments
We thank VTARNG and SFC Jeremy Neskey of the Army
Mountain Warfare School for insight and cooperation during
the study.
32 | JSOM Volume 18, Edition 3 / Fall 2018

