Page 8 - JSOM Winter 2023

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SOMA PRESIDENT

SOMA Members and JSOM Readers, SOMA’s mission is to advance the science,
technology, knowledge, and skills of un-
023 has been very favorable for SOMA conventional medicine providers in order
and SOMSA. We have received great J Jo h n D om i i n gu e z, MS G (R et t ) to increase survival, reduce suffering, and
h
John Dominguez, MSG (Ret)
D
MS
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(R
2feedback that will help us adjust fire speed recovery of those who are injured or
and dial in our assembly program and labs for SOMSA 2024. become ill during Special Operations or tactical missions. We
The feedback we received will help SOMA remain relevant can’t succeed without participating in educational activities,
and provide education and training to meet the needs of the such as medical conferences, symposia, and working groups.
global Special Operations Forces (SOF) medical community. Contribute to progress by seeking out the organizations that
are driving medical advancement and find out how you can
By the time you read this, the submission period for abstracts help. Our community is about establishing and maintaining
and labs will be closed. SOMA would like to continue to en- good relationships and communication. No single service or
courage medical Noncommissioned Officers (NCOs) to cap- country can achieve the amount of medical and tactical ad-
ture their experiences, comparisons, case studies, vignettes, vancement that is possible when we collaborate and synergize
etc. and submit them for presentation during the next call for our efforts. We can’t work in silos!
abstracts. Below are a few examples of potential topics and
information gaps to consider for the medical NCOs:
• The difference in quality, funding, and availability of train-
ing from global combat operations to focused combat
engagements
• Personal experience with mild traumatic brain injury
(mTBI) while on mission and how it affected your ability to
perform as a medic
o How were you affected long-term by this incident?
• How you adapt your medical kit and how you carry it
based on the mission (Joint Combined Exchange Training
(JCET), maritime operations, combat operations, extreme
temperature environments, etc.)
• What is the next evolution in enlisted medicine? In the spring of 2023, NATO Special Operations Headquar-
ters (NSHQ) started a transition both in mission and in name.
• Does the professional development model conflict with NSHQ is now called Special Operations Forces Command
maintaining and enhancing medical skills?
(SOFCOM). SOFCOM has conducted six Medical Research
Workshops from 2017 to the present.
We welcome any topics from the force. Sharing our experi-
ences with others reduces friction points across the force, not
just at the local or team level. A common oversight in medic
training that isn’t formally addressed is an overview of the mil-
itary medical acquisition, procurement, and medical logistics
system. How many times have you submitted an order and
not received everything you ordered or received a similar item
(e.g., you ordered 12 oral transmucosal fentanyl individual
packages at 800μg and received 6 at 1600μg)? We should have
a better understanding of how medical and multinational lo-
gistics work and how alliance countries’ pharmaceutical pack-
aging looks in comparison to ours. We discuss topics including
prolonged field care (PFC) / prolonged casualty care (PCC),
contested logistics, and buildings of opportunity that could be The next figure states the mission of these workshops. Many of
part of future conflicts. We should discuss familiarization of the same faces that you see on SOMA’s committees and work-
alliance medical equipment, supplies, and battlefield recovery ing groups and at SOMSA attend these working groups. Hope-
of medical equipment in peer-to-peer conflicts. fully we’ll see some of these presentations at SOMSA 2024.

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