Source: United States Army
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Soldiers assigned to the 512th Field Hospital trained to move wounded troops across Europe during a recent field training exercise, testing casualty evacuation procedures across extended distances during large-scale combat operations.
The 512th Field Hospital is subordinate to the 519th Hospital Center, 30th Medical Brigade, and executed the training to maintain hospital-level care while transporting patients over long distances.
SWORD 26, the U.S. Army’s multinational exercise series formerly known as DEFENDER-Europe, focuses on rapid deployment, interoperability with NATO allies, and sustaining forces across the European theater. Medical support plays a critical role in preserving combat power.
Medical teams rehearsed long-distance casualty movement, coordinated with host-nation support partners, and maintained care from the point of injury through evacuation.
Training occurred in two phases. The first tested core procedures and equipment. The second phase challenged medical teams to adapt treatment methods while working with limited supplies.
“The first phase is proof of concept, and the second phase is our innovation phase where we’re trying things we haven’t done before,” said Army Capt. Bethany Blankenship, executive officer and lead planner for the 512th Field Hospital. “They told us they want us to get creative with how we would treat patients’ long term with minimal supplies and resources.”
Soldiers convoyed from Rhine Ordnance Barracks to Sembach Kaserne and back, moving nine vehicles in the medical convoy and additional transport for personnel. In total, 208 Soldiers from the 512th Field Hospital and the 519th Hospital Center participated.
“We’re moving 100 percent of our equipment by ourselves,” Blankenship said. “The field hospital is doctrinally supposed to move 30 percent of its equipment. We’re moving all of it.”
Planners established a 32-bed field hospital expandable to 48 beds. Capabilities included two operating rooms, intensive care, intermediate care wards, and emergency medical treatment, along with pharmacy, laboratory, dental, and medical logistics support.
Future large-scale combat operations may involve extended evacuation timelines, increasing the importance of prolonged field care.
“If we’re simulating a war environment, we expect mostly trauma patients,” Blankenship said. “We’re expecting gunshot wounds, head injuries, amputations, and then a few lower-acuity injuries.”
Patients are triaged in the emergency medical treatment area before being moved to surgery, intensive care, or intermediate care. Stabilized patients can then be prepared for evacuation and onward transport.
Col. Crystal L. Belew, commander of the 519th Hospital Center, said exercises like this help identify risks before they affect real-world operations.
“This is the time to test those capabilities and identify the gaps and risks associated with them, not during the time of war,” Belew said. “We need to identify the challenges, the power sources we need, and the types of patients that are safe to move on this platform.”
Training also included coordination with host-nation support partners along potential evacuation routes.
“We need to identify the resources our host nations may be able to provide along a long evacuation route,” Belew said.
Planning revealed friction points, including changes to medical supply ordering procedures and generator licensing requirements that required additional training before movement.
“We should have started PMCS and planning much earlier than we did,” Blankenship said. “There are a lot more pre-exercise training requirements than people realize.”
Belew said the exercise reinforces the role of Army medical teams in sustaining troops during combat.
“We are here, we will care for them, and we will get them home,” she said.