Journal of Special Operations Medicine. Volume 4, Edition 1, Winter 2004

Abstract : Happy New Year from USSOCOM and the Surgeon's Office! Once again, those of us in the headquarters find ourselves in awe of the accomplishments of the medical folks in this command and all they do to ensure the deployment safety of our SOF war-fighters and the care given to them when they get sick or injured. Though the public focus remains within the OEF and OIF areas, we are well aware and appreciative of the activity of SOF operators in greater than 150 countries this past year and the impact it has on this nation. Several significant issues are coming up and our focus continues to be upon getting the correct tools and training to our medical operators. 1. The home for Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) has been resolved and AFSOC is working the details on how this important mission will be incorporated into SOF. My career in SOF started at the old Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service (ARRS) serving USAF PJs as we transitioned through 23rd Air Force (MAC) in the late 1980s and into AFSOC. The CSAR mission transitioned into USAF/ACC, and for many years our association with PJs was less than optimal in spite of the long history of successful interoperability. As AFSOC works through the transition we have the opportunity to again share capability with our PJ colleagues--their history is rich and goes back to WW2 and the China/Burma/India theater. With the help of CMSgt Hickson, Commandant of the PJ School, we will find ways to share training successes and make the schools interoperable, giving us additional options in our training scenarios. 2. Since our efforts at fielding hemostatic dressings and agents, there has been tremendous activity in the fielding of products to stem battlefield hemorrhage. Our initial BISC initiatives were with fibrin/thrombin-containing dressings and we fielded them under an IND permitted by the FDA. Since then, other dressings and products have moved forward and are available.