US Army medics prepare for war with China
Service is focused on overcoming logistical hurdles and other obstacles now so that medical professionals will be ready if they’re needed.
Jennifer Hlad | May 20, 2025 03:23 PM ET
Army Asia-Pacific China
HONOLULU—Military casualty care in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars aimed to fly wounded troops to a hospital within “the golden hour.” But such quick medevacs are unrealistic in the vast Pacific.
“You can’t fly anywhere in an hour, and you may or may not have air dominance,” in a potential war with China, Maj. Gen. Darrin Cox, commander of the U.S. Army’s 18th Medical Command, said in an interview at the Land Forces Pacific conference here.
To prepare for that possibility, the Army has added a few days to the combat medic training course, is doing more realistic rehearsals with partner nations to build relationships, is building joint theater distribution centers to bring equipment west of the International Date Line, and is developing distributed command-and-control nodes in the region.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/05/us-army-medics-prepare-war-china/405458/?oref=d1-category-lander-top-story
