Page 132 - JSOM Winter 2019

CoTCCC Hail and Farewell

r Frank Butler, CAPT (SEAL) MC USN (Ret) is retiring together to enable—and demand—excellence in bat-
Dfrom his 12-year tenure as the Chairman of the Commit- tlefield trauma care from their organizations. Monty
tee on TCCC (CoTCCC). also brings a decade of superb service as a CoTCCC
member to this new position and will add an invaluable
I have been extraordinarily blessed to have been part combat medic perspective to the CoTCCC leadership
of the incredible work done by the Committee on structure.
TCCC and the Joint Trauma System (JTS) over the last The long-term plan for the CoTCCC Chair position is
two decades.
to restructure it so that the compensation for this full-
Most of the individuals who serve on the CoTCCC, time civil service position better reflects what physicians
the TCCC Working group, and the other JTS combat using their clinical expertise receive in both the military
trauma committees are not assigned to the JTS—they and the civilian sectors. This upgrade has been initiated
volunteer their time and expertise to help in the effort to by the JTS but has not yet been finalized by the De-
improve combat casualty care. THANKS to all of those fense Health Agency.
selfless individuals for helping to conceive of, develop, Once that action has been taken, my recommendation
and implement the remarkable advances in battlefield to the JTS leadership as the person best qualified to
trauma care that have been made since the conflict in assume leadership of the CoTCCC is COL (Ret) Bob
Afghanistan begun.
Mabry. COL Mabry is well known to JSOM readers as
I’m happy to report that the CoTCCC a former Special Forces 18D medic; a recipient of the
will have superb leadership going Silver Star for his actions in the Battle of Mogadishu;
forward. CAPT Brendon Drew is now a superb Emergency Medicine physician; the former
serving as the Interim Chairman. Director of the Army Combat Medic Training program;
CAPT Drew is the First Marine Divi- the founding Director of the tri-service EMS Fellow-
sion Surgeon and the Navy Surgeon ship program; a Robert Woods Johnson Congres sional
General’s Specialty Leader for Emer- fellow; and, in his final active duty assignment, the
gency Medicine. He has served with Command Surgeon for the Joint Special Operations
both USMC and Special Operations Command. In addition to those remarkable career ac-
advanced resuscitative teams in the prehospital com- complishments, COL (Ret) Mabry is a well-recognized
bat environment and so has personally seen TCCC thought leader in the field of battlefield medicine and
concepts in action for many years. was a charter member of the CoTCCC.
It is a tribute to CAPT Drew’s sense of duty that he
has agreed to take on the responsibilities of being the IF the CoTCCC Chair position is up-
CoTCCC Chair in addition to the duties of the other two graded as recommended, and IF COL
important medical leadership positions that he already (Ret) Mabry applies for and is selected
holds while the JTS identifies the next full-time CoTCCC for this position through the civil ser-
Chair. This is yet another example of how TCCC’s suc- vice hiring procedure, the CoTCCC
cess has been based largely on the personal initiative will continue to be in supremely ca-
of individuals dedicated to improving battlefield trauma pable hands after CAPT Drew com-
care and who are willing to contribute far more to this pletes his interim term as Chair.
effort than their military assignments would require. When asked about his future and TCCC, Dr Butler responded
with:
MSG (retired) “Monty” Montgomery
has been proposed by Dr Butler to What will be my future role in TCCC? I am not going
serve as the new Vice Chairman of away—just moving from the front of the room at the
the CoTCCC when that position has CoTCCC meetings to join the great group of dedicated
been finalized. Monty was one of the trauma care experts in the audience who continue to
primary architects of the uniquely help with TCCC long after they have left the military—
successful TCCC-based Casualty Re- or who were never even in the military.
sponse Program in the 75th Ranger God bless all of the men and women who have been
Regiment. This program is the model or will be wounded in the defense of our country—and
for the DoD of how lives are saved in combat when all of those who do such a magnificent job of caring
combat unit commanders and medical leaders work for them.

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