Hundreds of U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers from across the country and their Canadian armed forces counterparts conducted a simulated medical evacuation training event here August 18, 2023 as part of Exercise Global Medic 2023.

Global medic is an annual multicomponent, multinational collective training exercise where forces from all components along with joint and international partners perform a collective medical training event to test their medical equipment and systems as well as treatment techniques and procedures to help increase medical readiness for future conflicts.

“Medical preparedness is one of the most essential things the military can have, especially with joint force training,” said U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Selena Sanchez, an operating room specialist from the 7455th Medical Operations Readiness Unit. “It lets us know what we need to do when that time comes.”

One way the team enhances the realism of the medical training is through the use and application of moulage. Moulage is the art of applying fake blood, faux splintered bones and a host of other simulated trauma injuries on mannequins and Soldiers.

“We apply moulage to simulate real injuries and real wounds,” said Canadian Army Cpl. Mak, a medic from the 12th Field Ambulance out of Vancouver, Canada. “This gives our troops the most realistic training possible. It’s as real as it gets.”

This was Sanchez’s first time teaching medical readiness. She stressed the importance of joint training and the interoperability between the services.

“Being able to share ideas between joint forces is incredible,” said Sanchez. “Not only am I teaching them, I’m also learning from them as well.”

Mak also emphasized the importance of joint training and expanding on each other’s knowledge and experiences.

“I’m going to be able to take back a lot of information to my unit and pass it on to them,” said Mak. “The members I serve with in the Canadian Armed Forces are my brothers and sisters and likewise within NATO.”

Joint training exercises, such as Global Medic, establish and maintain strong relationships between the U.S. and NATO allies, fostering an alliance to build on for future exercises.

“This exercise helps us strengthen our working relationship, cooperation, and trust,” said Mak. “Altogether it builds cohesion, and we’re like a family.”