Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND
PACIFIC OCEAN –
For many, the first image that comes to mind upon hearing Army/Navy is the annual football game between the two rival service academies. For midshipmen and cadets, inter-service competition is instilled in them from the moment they step foot onto their respective campus – exclamations of ‘Beat Navy!’ and ‘Beat Army!’ as much a part of the culture as the shared commitment to service and sacrifice.
As intense and emotional those annual competitions can be, outside of that small bubble, the relationship between the Army and the Navy is more aptly compared to a sibling rivalry, than truly adversarial.
The reality is that Army/Navy teamwork is fairly common – and it is through interoperability that the Department of Defense is able to achieve its full strength. U.S. operations in the Pacific Theater during World War II are one example of joint operations between the services. The Guadalcanal Campaign – with its remote Solomon Islands and great distance from the United States – necessitated close cooperation between land and sea forces. The Army engaged the enemy on the land while the Navy provided fire support from the sea, as well as carrying military materiel to keep troops supplied.
A more recent example showcasing the strength of our joint force was Operation Unified Response – the United States’ response to the devastating 2010 Haitian earthquake. A mere two days after the earthquake, Army paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, were on the ground in the capital, Port-au-Prince. The Navy soon followed, airdropping supplies from aircraft, establishing field hospitals, and providing medical aid with one of their hospital ships, USNS Comfort (T-AH-20).
These two historical examples illustrate that Department of Defense working together is greater than the sum of its parts. During Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2024 (RIMPAC 24) the Army’s 105th Surgical Augmentation Detachment embedded with the organic medical assets onboard USS Somerset (LPD 25), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, to test our services’ interoperability.
Amphibious transport dock ships, also known as LPDs, are warships that embark, transport, and land elements of a landing force for a variety of expeditionary warfare missions. Due to their mission, they require robust medical assets to include the capability for emergency care. Typically, LPDs deploy with a fleet surgical team, but this time, Somerset embarked an Army surgical detachment for the first time to explore and test the inter-service exchange of forces for future large-scale operations.
On July 13, the combined forces of Somerset’s own assets and the Army’s surgical detachment participated in a mass casualty exercise. The following are interviews with four Soldiers from the detachment.
U.S Army Sergeant Parker Mcilwain, a surgical technologist, from Lubbock, Texas. Currently stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington.
Q. In your own words what kind of support is your unit providing during RIMPAC?
A. “From what I understand, the Army has come to augment the capabilities of Somerset, meaning that we [the Army] have a larger number of surgically trained medical personnel, which then allows the Navy corpsmen to do more of what they’re trained to do.”
Q. Is this your first time participating in a naval exercise?
A. “Yes it is.”
Q. What’s been your overall impression so far of RIMPAC?
A. “We went to the symposiums beforehand. I’m happy to be able to expand my knowledge, and do surgery at sea, which not everyone in my specialty can say they’ve done. I hope that since we’re the first ones to do this, it will open up more opportunities for integrated operations in the future.”
Q. What’s been one positive surprise and one negative surprise of your experience?
A.” Since this is considered a deployed setting, their chow is a million times better than anything we have ever eaten out in the field. In a deployed setting, I would happily be on a ship for the food alone. One challenge is that when Sailors are at sea, they eat, sleep, and work in the same place for months at a time. That would drive me crazy. My favorite part of the day is when I get to go home and forget about work for the most part. Hangout with my wife and dog, blow off steam, and reset for the next day. You can’t do that here, because work is just two floors down.”
Q. What did your training look like in preparation for RIMPAC?
A. “So we were able to spend some time on USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Most of the cross training we did was on the ship. I do think it would be valuable, if interoperability between units becomes more of a regular thing, that the Navy comes to us and we go to the Navy so that we can do some more true cross training before the event.”
Q. What’s one thing you feel you’ve learned or gained from this experience?
A.” I feel like I’ve become more of a jack of all trades, as opposed to just being so focused on the operating room. I feel more competent now, where if one of my battle buddies in a different department were to fall out, I could step up and do the job. At least for a little while.”
U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Owen McGrane, an emergency physician, from Washington, D.C. Currently stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Q. Can you briefly describe in your own words, what kind of support your unit is providing during RIMPAC?
A. “So our role here is to mimic what your fleet surgical team (FST) would do. We add surgical care to your organic medical assets on the ship. That would mean the ability to take care of surgical patients and increase expertise as far as trauma care and resuscitation.”
Q. Is this a one-time situation or will there be increased joint cooperation in the future?
A. “I think that there are simply not enough FSTs to fully man LPDs, and if what we need for the future fight is to have LPDs that can provide surgical care, then the Army would be the natural service to essentially plug and play that role.”
Q. Have you ever participated in a naval exercise before?
A. “I’ve deployed with Navy SEALs on surgical teams before. I’ve never deployed on a Navy vessel, but I’ve worked with land-based Navy assets.”
Q. So first time on a Navy ship?
A. “I worked on an LSD (dock landing ship) when I was enlisted, but nothing as robust as this.”
Q. How does this experience compare with your time embedded with the SEALs?
A. “This adds on all the aspects of ship life that you would never think about. I mean ship movement, all of the damage control aspects, all of the things that I wouldn’t consider in a field environment. If I weren’t attached to the ship, I wouldn’t have to think about flooding, or any of the other limitations and challenges that come with being on a ship – these platforms make [casualty evacuation and medical evacuation] more challenging. In the field you’re either moving people by air or ground, you wouldn’t have to lily pad to other vessels. “
Q. What’s one thing that surprised you positively and one thing that surprised you negatively about this experience?
A. “Quality of life has been a positive surprise. You have better food than the Army does – don’t tell them that. Also, the ability to go to the ship store and get basic necessities is nice. One negative aspect is just how full the ship is and how limited berthing is.”
Q. How did the mass casualty drill go?
A. “I would say there is a natural tendency for people to revert to what they know during stressful situations. Just from looking at the triage station and the BDS (battle dress station) you could see there was a divide between Navy and Army. I think that as time goes on we’ll fix that, and become more of a cohesive team. But, initially it comes down to learning how you (the Navy) does things and conduct initial assessments. I think as we continue to work together, that should become more seamless.”
U.S. Army Captain Rebecca Lalonde, Surgical Detachment Commander, from Saint Ignace, Michigan. Currently stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Q. What does Army/Navy mean to you?
A. “Army/Navy to me is the one team, one fight mentality, of being able to work together for the common good and the overall warfighter’s benefit. Whether that be completing the mission, or the best patient care possible.”
Q. What kind of support is the detachment providing during RIMPAC?
A. “Day to day, we support the ship’s company with any duties they may have. That could mean helping with trash, laundry, or medical duty for any of the operations going on around the ship. Overall for RIMPAC, we’re testing the interoperability of replacing a fleet surgical team with a surgical augmentation detachment, to see if those can be more interchangeable should we go into large scale combat operations and we need to pull from the Army to support the Navy in the Pacific, or if the Navy needs to support the Army. We’re testing if we can we be interchangeable to the point of pulling an Army detachment and plugging it directly into a Navy mission.”
Q. Did you ever think you would spend time on a Navy ship when you joined the Army?
A. “I did not, no.”
Q. What were you expectations coming into this exercise, and how have they been met or not met?
A. “That’s a hard question. I think I didn’t know what to expect, so I came into this with a really open mind and was ready to support the ship’s company. I did read about the fleet surgical team before coming here to gain a better understanding of their role. Big things were just helping out with ship activities, like being at the change of command to assist ship’s company, or when they pulled the anchor up. Then there is the overall RIMPAC mission, where we’re functioning as the surgical component of the ship, conducting training and the mass [casualty] exercise with Navy corpsmen, getting reps and sets to learn how to do our mission together. I think overall it is meeting my expectations.”
Q. Did you have any worries coming into this exercise, and have they come to fruition?
A. “My biggest concern was the integration of the junior soldiers with the corpsmen, and I think the Navy chiefs have been doing a great job of ensuring that we are creating that one team, one fight mentality.”
Q. What kind of training did you do to prepare for RIMPAC?
A. “We toured the USS Nimitz (CVN 68), and did some familiarization training onboard. They did not have an LPD there (in Washington), but any exposure to the Navy is good exposure. Just getting to pick the brains of the Bremerton folks about what to bring, how to live on a ship, how to avoid getting seasick. All of that was really helpful.”
Q. What do you feel like you’ve learned or gained from this experience?
A. “I definitely think that the team as a whole has learned the importance of closed-loop communication – communication of patient tracking, and following up and reassessing patients when it comes to patient care. That means reassessing a tourniquet, or reassessing vital signs during the patient care process, then communicating those findings back to the physician or the treatment provider.”
U.S. Army Specialist Kylie Tennant, licensed practical nurse (LPN), from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Currently stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord
Q. What does Army/Navy mean to you?
A. Working together as one team.
Q. That sounds like a fake answer.
A. “No, that’s what I’ve been wanting on this whole integration thing. Which I think we’ve been struggling with.”
Q. What has been the biggest challenge, with regards to integration?
A. “Probably identifying the gaps where the Army can help with the Navy, and vice versa. I think we’re both separate right now, and not thinking about how we can best assist one another, because there are definitely areas that both services can help the other.”
Q. What are your overall perceptions of working in a joint environment?
A. “It’s hard, because the Army has their way of doing things, and the Navy has their way of doing things and we have yet to perfect the best way to mesh the two. For example, we weren’t super familiar with the SOPs (standard operating procedures), which is super important because we’re on their ship, so we have to do things their way.”
Q. What’s been one positive surprise? Negative?
A. “Positive? I would say how organized everything has been. We just did the mass [casualty] drill, and that was super chaotic. But the Navy clearly knew exactly how they wanted to run the drill, and our unit was the confounding variable. They knew what they have in triage, and what they have in the BDS, and the ICU. I feel like they’re very organized where all of the Navy personnel know what they have and where it is. They (Navy) seem to have a wider array of knowledge, where the Army has a tendency to stick to their specialties. Negatively, there could have been more of a push for integration. It still feels like the Army does their training, and the Navy does their training, without really coming together.”
Q. Do you think that will improve with more joint training?
A. “Definitely. I mean this is the first time they’ve tried this with a different service coming aboard to augment. Anytime you try something new, you’re going to identify the problems, and once we iron the kinks out I think it will make for a more cohesive team in the future.”
Twenty-nine nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, more than 150 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC in and around the Hawaiian Islands, June 27 to Aug. 1. The world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans. RIMPAC 2024 is the 29th exercise in the series that began in 1971.
Interview responses were edited for clarity and accuracy.