More than 100 U.S. Army Reserve and U.S. Army National Guard Soldiers have taken part in, and are preparing to take part in, the Military Occupational Specialty, or MOS, 68W Sustainment Training course held here throughout the first quarter of calendar year 2026, split evenly throughout nine different rotations.

Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Michael McCreary, an assistant inspector general for the Salt Lake City-based 807th Theater Medical Command and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the MOS 68W Sustainment Training, said the sustainment training is imperative for MOS 68W, also known as combat medics, to revalidate and maintain their MOS 68W proficiencies.

“The purpose of the 68W Sustainment Training is for every two years, combat medics are able to get hands-on with manikins,” said McCreary. “We do all of our skills because for most [Army Reserve Soldiers], this is basically the only time that they’re going to have that kind of hands-on training.”

McCreary said that the sustainment training — prepared, planned and executed in a joint coordination between the Pinellas Park, Fla., based Army Reserve Medical Command and the Medical Simulation and Training Center here — was borne out of an ad hoc requirement from the lapse of appropriations that began October 1, 2025, and consequently disrupted and cancelled out originally scheduled training events.

“We have a lot of 68Ws who are due for their sustainment, and they weren’t able to go for two months, so we’ve got a backlog," McCreary said.

Furthermore, the sustainment training consists of 48 Continuing Education Units, or CEUs, and culminates with two validation exercises within a five-day period as opposed to the usual 10-day course.

“We have instructors here on base that are technically with the MSTC, but they’re here to do the sustainment training so that we can get all those 100 to 120 people sustained without having to lose their MOS or get an extension,” said McCreary.

The silver lining of the sustainment training is the amount of equipment and resources available at the MSTC here to closely emulate realistic scenarios such as working as emergency medical technicians, working in emergency room situations and combat triage, McCreary said.

“Being able to come here to the MSTC with their $13 million equipment of active manikins [that are] able to simulate breathing, bleeding out, pupils dilating — that gives them a real-world experience as we can without having them go to an ER and work on actual live patients,” said McCreary. “And then we can actually get more people seen through as well as their medical so they can sustain their national registry as EMTs.”

“So that allows the units to continue to be mission ready without having to bring all this training down to the unit level — which can be very, very difficult,” said McCreary.

Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Rachel Flores, a combat medic assigned to the New Orleans-based 7232nd Medical Support Unit, said the five-day sustainment training was a first-time experience for her, but nevertheless a fulfilling training event that tested her mettle.

“I think it’s a great course,” Flores said. “They gave us a lot of hands-on time, which I really did like, and the instructors were great.”

Additionally, Flores said the sustainment training can facilitate the modernization of overall collective readiness by having Soldiers bring back their hands-on experience to their peers, subordinates and leaders.

“Unit training in the medical aspect — we need more of it,” said Flores. “So, I think that this would be a nice way of going back to anybody…underneath our umbrella who doesn’t have the experience, [such as] first-time recertification Soldiers. It would be great for unit readiness.”

Flores also said the course instructors have been extremely helpful in their accommodations to MOS 68W Soldiers with medical profiles or other life obligations.

“You still get the hands-on skills and they accommodate you in like the best way they can, which they did a great job,” said Flores.

Lastly, the sustainment training factors into the capabilities of Army Reserve medical Soldiers to contribute to the Joint Force requirements.

“With this training, we’re able to adapt, modernize and transform the military into making us as strong as we can be,” said McCreary. “Other countries have kind of ramped up their operations and we need to be ready for anything that comes down the line, so this type of training allows us to be as prepared as we can be.”

Overall, the implementation and success of the MOS 68W Sustainment Training course would not have been possible if not for the cumulative efforts between the instructors and the MSTC personnel here.

“All the instructors that have come with me on this mission have been absolute rock stars,” McCreary said. “Nobody is sitting along on the sidelines.”

“Their goal is to make sure everyone gets sustainment training and they can take that back and be able to pass along their knowledge to the other units and the other Soldiers.”