As Exercise Global Medic, the medical component of Operation Mojave Falcon 25, kicks off, the 934th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment highlights its vital role in providing rapid, life-saving care in austere environments while supporting the Army’s readiness and modernization of battlefield medicine.

Global Medic delivers relevant, realistic collective training for medical units preparing for large-scale combat operations. Throughout the exercise, medical teams receive notional casualties and move them through various echelons of care, replicating the demands of future conflicts.

The 934th FRSD’s mission is to deliver immediate surgical care to forward-deployed elements before casualties can be evacuated to a higher level of care, such as the field hospital.

“We'll be tracking a team out on mission. They'll call in that there's troops in contact, then the battle captain will give us word that, hey, we've got a casualty,” said Lt. Col. Robert Fincher, 934th FRSD commander. “Then they can pull that casualty back to us.”

At the start of the exercise, the 801st Field Hospital was not yet operational, and the FRSD’s early presence was crucial for ensuring emergency medical capability on ground.

“As soon as the field hospital sets up, we leave. There's no point for us to be here because they can do more stuff than us, so we'll jump to more forward locations, better supporting the front lines taking casualties,” said Staff Sgt. Charles Bohr, the 934th’s detachment sergeant.

Beyond patient care, the 934th FRSD is using the exercise to test newly-fielded equipment and establish evolving staff procedures.

“We got our start in the Forward Surgical Team, then we added emergency medicine doctors to our lineup. Now we do far-forward medicine. Essentially, we give any operation the capability for surgical augmentation, so that if they have a casualty, we can pull that casualty back, stabilize them, and get them to the higher echelon of care,” described Fincher. “We do damage control surgery in our FST, and now with the change in conflict, they've shifted from damage control to prolonged field care. So we may have to shift how we do business to a certain extent.”

While the unit has also modernized its navigation and communication technology with the Joint Battle Command Platform (JBCP), Global Medic injects of communication system jamming will force Soldiers to refresh their map-reading skills.

“We used to literally pull out the old-school atlas maps from the ’90s,” Bohr recalled, and now they’ll do it again to ensure the FRSD can not only survive but communicate with front-line units to provide that far-forward life-saving medical treatment.

Operation Mojave Falcon and Global Medic exemplify the Army Reserve’s unwavering commitment to training and readiness and the ability to respond with speed, skill, and strength.