Courtesy Photo | Spc. Olivia Arthur, a medic from the 848th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment...... read more read more
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FAIRBORN, Ohio — In early June, an ambitious joint-force exercise named Relentless Valor brought together a mix of Reserve, Guard, and international military medical personnel for a realistic, high-intensity training event that not only tested resuscitative and surgical readiness but reimagined how future joint operations can be built from the ground up.
For Capt. Anthony Hopkins, commander of the Army Reserve’s 848th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment (FRSD), the experience was unlike anything he had participated in during his Army career. “This wasn’t your typical top-down, division-level training,” he said. “This was a commander-to-commander initiative, organically grown and meticulously tailored to the needs and training objectives of the units involved.”
The Vision Behind the Operation
The idea was sparked by Col. Michael Policastro of the 445th Aeromedical Staging Squadron, Air Force Reserve, who reached out to contacts across services and components with a bold concept: a realistic, LSCO (Large Scale Combat Operation) medical readiness exercise that grew into a large-scale event involving nearly 400 personnel across three separate sites.
Held June 5–8, 2025, the exercise took place primarily at Wright State’s Calamityville Disaster Training Center, a rugged, industrial-style training site near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, while simultaneous operations occurred at Springfield Airport and Wright-Patterson AFB itself. Units brought their own equipment, funding, and transportation, showcasing just how committed each team was to make the event a success.
“This was all done on a shoestring budget, something like $50,000, yet it had the impact of a multimillion-dollar event,” Hopkins explained. “Everyone who was there wanted to be there, and that changed the entire atmosphere.”
848th FRSD: Mission Ready
The 848th FRSD, based in Twinsburg, Ohio, sent a 22-person team including surgeons, medics, nurses, anesthetists, and support staff. The unit arrived with their own tactical vehicles, medical supplies and equipment, tents, generators, and air conditioners, and fully set up their mobile surgical unit, complete with operating room, ER, and ICU sections.
The first two days on ground consisted of site establishment and receiving a ‘Road to War’ scenario brief that would drive units’ direct actions in security, operations, and medical treatments. Units practiced cold and hot loading of aircraft, patient movement, and loading and unloading techniques of patients with litters into vehicles. The FRSD surgeons and ER doctors used this time to conduct training with medical and non-medical personnel, conducting hands-on skills with cadavers including chest tubes, intubations, emergency cricothyrotomies, field amputations, and field blocks and combat anesthesia techniques.
Familiarization with other units’ capabilities was crucial in setting the stage for triage communication during the exercise.
“We were exposed to all aspects of joint medical operations, learning what each unit does. What kind of patients do they get? What equipment do they have? There are things we just didn’t know; it seems like a small thing, but it is significant to medical operations. If I don’t know what you’re capable of, I don’t know what [kind of patients] to send you,” said Hopkins.
Leading the Surgical Charge
The scenario itself was based on a notional conflict in the Pacific, with escalating combat and attacks on U.S. forces. Special Forces played opposing forces (OPFOR), using blanks, various types of simulated artillery and demolitions, and coordinated simulated attacks to test perimeter defense and trauma response.
Day 3 kicked off at 7am with attacks on outposts, and patients began funneling in via aircraft and unit casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), the FRSD facing multiple mass casualty (MASCAL) situations while integrating tactical security, which Hopkins said medical providers don’t often practice in their training exercises.
In a ten-hour timespan, the FRSD would go on to treat more than 30 simulated casualties, conducting 18 full surgical procedures on perfused cadavers and cut suits, high-fidelity training tools that simulate live bleeding and tissue responses.
The FRSD had two organic surgeons, a general surgeon from Chile, a flight surgeon from Taiwan, an anesthesiologist from Senegal, and two from Norway, including the Surgeon General of Norway, working side by side.
“We even deployed a mobile surgical team to perform procedures in the field, including a chest tube and a surgical amputation on-site, stabilizing the patients, and then moved them via CASEVAC in our LMTV (Light Medium Tactical Vehicle) back to our surgical site.” Hopkins said.
Integration and Interoperability
What truly set Relentless Valor apart was its interoperability. Teams executed real-time coordination between Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine, and Special Forces elements, as well as international partners.
Aeromedical evacuation from the FRSD via UH-60 Black Hawks led to a "tail swap," transferring patients to C17s and C130s, engaging the Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT), and intertwining patient documentation and logistics through the En Route Patient Staging System (ERPSS).
“Going from point of injury through patient flow, triage, MEDEVAC, and Role 3 evacuation planning is really hard to mimic in an exercise, but it allowed the 848th to rehearse the full continuum of trauma care,” said Hopkins.
Training Beyond Textbooks
The surgical team wasn’t the only one gaining hands-on experience. Beyond focusing on the unit’s Mission Essential Tasks (METs), the 848th FRSD engaged their non-surgical members (nurses, medics, CRNAs) with hands-on training preparing for major surgeries, suturing, wound dressing, intubation, medications and dosing, and other interventional skills.
“We educated on what a patient needs from a medical standpoint, covered our Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) for real-world combat injuries, and reinforced trauma assessments, focusing training on triage and interventions, with infantry medics,” said Hopkins.
Hopkins emphasized cross-training as a major win. “We don’t operate in stovepipes. Our nurses learn parts of the doctor's jobs; our medics learn parts of the nurse's jobs. Everyone walks away better prepared.”
Looking Ahead
The FRSD incorporated field training into their battle assembly weekends, building camaraderie and allowing them to focus on field operations since most of their team spends Monday-Friday in the medical world.
The team slept in an abandoned cement factory at Calamityville, adding a layer of environmental realism. “It wasn’t comfortable, but that was the point,” Hopkins said. “We train like we fight, and we train hard.”
For Hopkins and the 848th, the mission doesn’t stop here. The unit is already looking ahead to potential international exercises in the upcoming year.
“There’s momentum now,” he said. “And we believe that all the meaningful, combat-relevant training we push ourselves to do will translate into more lives saved later when we are identified for a real-world mission.”
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.11.2025 16:53 |
| Story ID: | 544417 |
| Location: | FAIRBORN, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 60 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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