Fort Hood Soldiers Enhance Battlefield Medical Skills with Innovative Underground Training Program

FORT HOOD, TX – This week, Fort Hood’s 1st Medical Brigade, part of the III Armored Corps, launched a training initiative known as “Operation Silver Lightning.”

The purpose of the exercise, as explained by the 1st Medical Brigade, is to replicate the complexities of delivering advanced medical care in a high-stakes, large-scale combat environment.

From March 23 to April 1, the brigade utilized the tactical elements of the Army Health System. Personnel, including combat medics, optometrists, doctors, veterinarians, and others, participated in this exercise, simulating a mass casualty incident under combat-like conditions in Fort Hood’s underground tunnels.

This week, Fox News was given an exclusive look at the execution of this comprehensive training exercise.

Soldiers training on the wounded, or role players during a training exercise at Fort Hood.  (Fox News)

“So the medics have understood that you cannot set up a multi-tent field hospital that occupies four or five, up to 15 acres and provides that world-class care, above ground anymore,” said Col. Kamil Sztalkoper, director of public affairs for the III Armored Corps.

Sztalkoper said the shift is driven in part by drone warfare observed in the war in Ukraine. 

300 Soldiers treat and work on fake wounded soldiers for a training exercise. (Fox News)

“We have to disperse, number one. And then hide in plain sight, is number two. So dispersing is using multiple different kinds of locations. Hiding in plain sight could be in a building, a warehouse, or here. Using one of our unique training facilities that was designed in the 1940s. Utilized in the 1950s to house nuclear and atomic weapons,” Sztalkoper told Fox News.

The tunnels have since been decommissioned and cleaned out for use as a training facility — in this case, an underground field hospital. Sztalkoper said the several miles of tunnels are used as a “triage emergency room, operating room, vet, optometry [and] clinics,” allowing troops to avoid what he described as the growing drone threat observed in Ukraine.

During this exercise, about 300 soldiers and role players portraying wounded troops ran through different evacuation and medical drills, with soldiers rushing the wounded from a helicopter to a military medical vehicle and then into the tunnels.

Combat medics are then trained to treat wounded soldiers, or, role players. Each of the wounded imitated the pain and symptoms of an injury that could happen on the battlefield.  

Soldiers as role players imitate the pain and injury of battlefield wounds. (Fox News)

“Really the dilemma for them is managing how they deal with all of this with what they have,” said Col. Brad Franklin, deputy commander of the 1st Medical Brigade.

Franklin, who also serves as a chief nurse, said he has experienced similar challenges in real-world operations. 

“Knowing you don’t have enough people, you don’t have enough surgeons, you don’t have enough nurses, don’t have enough medics and there’s more patients than you can handle,” Franklin said. “So it’s forcing them to triage, reverse triage and take care of these casualties.”

Aside from treatment for soldiers, K-9s and their handlers are also training in this exercise. Further down a dark tunnel, veterinarians work on a simulated wounded K-9, while the handler is being treated for simulated injuries across the room.

Lt. Col. Cynthia Fallness, commander of the 43rd Medical Detachment providing veterinary service support, said the personnel conducting this training are doctoral-level veterinarians.

“In this case, it is a traumatic fracture, a compound fracture of the hind limb. And the dog also has a chest wound and also, is having trouble breathing because there’s a traumatic injury to the mouth,” Fallness said. 

“So these are our diesel dogs,” she said of the fake K-9 on the operating table.

Soldiers practice all aspects of a mass casualty in combat, like evacuating the wounded (Fox News)

Out of the dozens of combat medics training, one medic says his role in the military is more than just a job. 

“My grandfather actually served in World War II as a combat medic,” William Rothwell, a combat medic with the 1st Medical Brigade, told Fox News. “He went into Normandy, I believe, after the push on Omaha Beach.”

Rothwell, a Boston native, never met his grandfather, but heard stories from his father.

“Which was just how brutal it was, how rough it was. Medicine back then wasn’t as great. So handling patients was somewhat traumatic.” 

In this training, Rothwell is getting that real-world medical combat experience before stepping foot on a battlefield. 

“The stories of how much he cared and was willing to go, you know, the mile and above to make sure that he can get his brothers home … really touched me,” Rothwell said. “So that’s kind of how I feel in this situation.”