Photo By Staff Sgt. Sean Ferry | Medical soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters company prepare to evacuate Spc....... read more read more
Plumes of smoke rise over a U.S. Army airfield at Joint Multinational Readiness Center’s Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, following simulated indirect fire during exercise Saber Junction 25. The artillery simulation cans explode across the hillside, marking the start of a realistic mass-casualty event. Moments later, notional casualties are carried to a medical treatment tent amid shouted directions and a flurry of movement. The chaos quickly organizes into a triage line, from highest priority to casualties who can wait.
In this scenario, air superiority doesn’t exist, which means rapid evacuation for critical casualties isn’t possible. Instead, frontline medical teams must provide life-saving treatment typically reserved for more secure environments away from the fight.
To meet that challenge, U.S. soldiers from Charlie Troop, Support Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment and 2-501st General Support Aviation Battalion, 1st Armored Division Combat Aviation Brigade are training to deliver prolonged field care.
“We’re going back to something that we used to do decades and decades ago,” Maj. Cat Kemeny, the regimental medical officer with 4 Regiment Army Air Corps, British Army. “In the current context, for those of us in the current military, yes, it is innovative.”
Soldiers are using real blood, drawn from their own ranks.
“What we’re looking to do is to try and exercise the delivery of giving blood, in a far forward situation, from our own organic sources,” said Kemeny. “Those organic sources are people.”
Following the barrage of simulated indirect fire, a notional casualty with a traumatic left-leg amputation, arrived at the medical tent in critical condition. Instead of administering a transfusion with blood delivered from afar, the HHC team practiced a "walking blood bank", pulling from soldiers who were pre-screened and prepared to donate blood on demand.
“People are walking around, storing blood at a perfect temperature and there’s no degradation in the products,” said Kemeny. “It’s fantastic.”
According to Kenemy, who oversaw the scenario as an Observer-Coach Trainer with Falcon Team, 7th Army Training Command, JMRC, the concept of a walking blood bank is not new.
This practice originated during World War I, eventually falling out of use due to safety concerns. However, the practice has recently been revived, thanks to advances in blood screening technology and the growing need to secure whole blood supplies on modern battlefields, where supply chains are vulnerable to disruption by adversaries capable of contesting airspace dominance.
Spc. Alexis O’Grady, an automated logistics supply specialist with the GSAB, was one of those donors. Pre-screened earlier in the exercise, using blood-typing kits and verified as a match, she was mustered to the role-one medical tent to donate directly for the casualty in need.
After a brief questionnaire to confirm O’Grady had not been exposed to any disqualifying diseases, Spc. Mark Walker, a combat medic with 2-501st GSAB, began the transfusion with the assistance of his team. Within minutes after inserting an intravenous line, beginning the collection process, the donor’s blood filled a bag.
To mitigate risk, and for the purpose of the exercise, her blood was returned to her body.
“It’s what we call an autologous transfusion,” Kemeny explained. “In reality, the donor got her own blood back.”
As the notional casualty was prepared for evacuation to the next echelon of care, O’Grady rested under a bag of her blood, sipping fluids, as she, Walker and Kemeny, reviewed the experience.
“It felt really good to actually do something that we trained for,” said Walker. “It brought out a lot of experience I can take back to the states.”
| Date Taken: | 09.12.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2025 08:11 |
| Story ID: | 548088 |
| Location: | HOHENFELS, BAYERN, DE |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, U.S. Troops Train for Prolonged Field Care in Contested Skies at Saber Junction 25, by SSG Sean Ferry, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
