DECEMBER 16, 2024 – Integration between military branches allows for greater strategic and tactical advantages which is why cooperation is key to military success. Four U.S. Army 68W combat medics and two 68C license practical nurses (LPN), from Joint Base Lewis-McChord 29th Hospital Center 28th Detachment, went underway onboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to provide medical training and learn from the ship’s medical department in an inter-branch exchange of knowledge.
“We are here to see how Navy corpsmen conduct medical operations and learn from it,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Monserrat Hernandez-Rodriguez, an LPN. “We would work with Sailors if we got deployed. We wanted to see how other branches perform and trade knowledge regarding medical operations.”
The Army medics also provided their version of Tactical Causality Combat Care (TCCC) training to the ship’s crew. During their time onboard, the Soldiers noticed large differences between shipboard TCCC and field TCCC. While the Army primarily focuses on care-under-fire, in which lifesaving care is performed on service members during an active conflict, the Navy primarily focuses on head, fire, and radiation injuries unique to nuclear-powered vessels. Nonetheless, a training opportunity like this was meant to teach Sailors and Soldiers new approaches to TCCC and benefit both the Army and Navy.
“Training opportunities like these are critical to mission readiness,” said Cmdr. Yummy Nguyen, senior medical officer. “Joint medical training opportunities are a chance to exchange key knowledge between branches that could potentially save the lives of service members. Future operations may require a more in-depth understanding of the nuance in specialization between branches.”
In addition to differences in how TCCC is conducted, Soldiers contrasted between the field and shipboard medical capabilities. Along with the difference in environment, topics such as space and resources meant the difference in medical capabilities and was something the Soldiers were surprised by.
“Layout wise it is similar to our field hospitals except that it is more compact due to it being on a ship,” said Hernandez. “The field hospital has more resources compared to a ship.”
The medical center onboard the ship is a role-two hospital. This allows the ship to handle trauma care, surgery, dental, and support services such as x-ray and anesthesia. The Army medics are trained and work with a role three hospital, which allows for intensive trauma care and surgeries. On the other hand, the ship performs more treatment and clinical work compared to their field hospital at a non-stop rate. After working and learning with the Army medics on this underway, Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Malcom Davis enjoyed their company and gained insight on how they ran their medical practices.
“They are really nice people who have much to show us,” said Davis. “They have a different setup where the nurses and providers are split up in a way that I like.”
Another difference in medical practices that separate the branches are that corpsmen work under their provider’s license. The Army however, has its combat medics work under both their provider’s license and their personal license. This alone does not sound like a large difference, but in the medical field, it allows for care to be done at different rates. The corpsman are allowed to get vital data and have to get approved by the ship’s nurse before performing certain procedures, while the medics with their own licenses are allowed to perform the procedures themselves. The Navy allows corpsmen to get their own LPN license through a Navy program, while the Army provides the program itself.
The training between these two branches will not end when the Soldiers disembark the ship. Navy corpsmen will soon spend time on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, gaining valuable knowledge on field hospital procedures. A unique aspect of the corpsman rate is that they can also work with the Marine Corps as field medics, known as greenside corpsmen. These corpsmen will be embedded with Marines, performing work similar to the Army medics.
“We intend to send some of our corpsmen to their training facilities as well,” said Nguyen. “It is important to recognize the differences in how the Army and Navy work in an operational environment and train to these differences so we can become more well-rounded.”
“We are excited for the corpsmen to come to our base,” Hernandez added. “They can get experience with boots on ground for the corpsmen who haven’t gone greenside yet.”
In a world of conflict, confidence between military branches is what will ensure the U.S. military remains up-to-date through the exchange of key lifesaving knowledge. Although each branch of the U.S. military specializes in specific roles, training exercises like these allow Ronald Reagan to gain more hands-on experience that could save Sailors and Army personnel, alike.
“In the event of a conflict, we as Soldiers could be assigned to Navy warships and we want to create confidence between us so that we can maintain a professional environment,” said Hernandez. “After all it is one team, one fight.”
From Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Estrada Eguizabal