Medical Service Corps Leader Development

05/17/2026

🎙️ NEW EPISODE: “Translating Military Leadership to Civilian Healthcare Executive Roles”

In this episode of “Be All You Can Be MSC”we sit down with Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley of HealthSearch Partners for one of the most honest conversations I’ve had about military transition, leadership, and executive credibility.

And candidly? Some of what they shared may surprise you.

We discuss:
▪️ Why healthcare boards hesitate to hire military leaders directly into executive roles
▪️ Why the FIRST civilian role matters more than most people realize
▪️ The biggest mistakes leaders make in their first 90 days
▪️ How relationships, not networking change careers
▪️ Why AI will increase the importance of human leadership, not decrease it

One of the most powerful moments: “You can be right and still fail if you don’t understand the culture.”

If you’re:

✅ transitioning from the military
✅ building toward executive leadership
✅ leading teams through change
✅ or trying to understand what influence-based leadership really looks like…
This episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now and let us know your biggest takeaway.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/be-all-you-can-be-msc/id1701344539?i=1000767329783

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4nGtACOr9zn8MyznN0gWk3?si=j__bLOqyRGKLaA-NTCh9sA



Army Medicine

Podcast Episode · Be All You Can Be MSC · May 14 · 53m

05/15/2026

Interesting read on potential Russian support to Iran to defend against a US ground invasion.

Not new, we’ve watched this tactic in Ukraine for years.

How are you replicating in your training?

Are Medical Simulation Training Centers flying drones over medics while providing care to simulate sounds of the new battlefield?

Have we changed individual first aid and combat life saver kit adjusting to longer evacuation timelines?

The gray zone described creates challenges that we often do not train to.

Thoughts?

How are you addressing?

A leaked GRU document reveals Russia's plan to arm Iran with unjammable drones. Deniable by design. Dangerous by any measure.

05/09/2026

The Role of Commander's Intent in Writing Orders

"The material and moral consequences of every major battle are so far-reaching that they usually bring about a completely altered situation, a new basis for the adoption of new measures. One cannot be at all sure that any operational plan will survive the first encounter with the main body of the enemy. Only a layman could suppose that the development of a campaign represents the strict application of a prior concept that has been worked out in every detail and followed through to the very end."
- Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke (Chief of Staff of the Prussian General Staff, aka Moltke the Elder)

Or put more simply and re-quoted by countless leaders,

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy".

Orders, when written properly, are a critical component of mission command. However, the tendency of both writers and readers of orders is to focus in on the ex*****on paragraph. This quote, as well as doctrine and experience, teach that the most important part of an order is the commander's intent.

So what does this mean?

1. For the Commander: Spend time crafting your intent to be understood by junior leaders in the fog of war or when the ground truth changes.

2. For the Planner and Operations Officer: Do not guess what the commander's intent is - ask, clarify, and truly understand. Spend a disproportionate amount of time ensuring clarity of intent instead of developing pages of specified tasks.

3. For those Executing Orders: Do not be lazy and skip to tasks to subordinate units to learn what you are required to do. Read and understand the commander's intent. Ensure your subordinates understand the commander's intent.

This way, subordinate commanders or leaders can use mission command to navigate the shifting sands of the modern battlefield to take advantage of opportunities as they appear or make changes to the plan on the fly rather than waiting for new orders. Clear commander’s intent enables disciplined initiative, which is all the more crucial on a battlefield where we may be limited in communications abilities.

Read the whole article by the Angry Staff Officer here: https://angrystaffofficer.com/2018/10/29/wait-whose-intent-the-role-of-commanders-intent-in-army-order-writing/?fbclid=IwAR2B9k8O1d3Sv8tHNYcztTBTGdW0TWfLGIaQgWzPGsE49055ZZzbjC_jb2w

05/06/2026

Prolonged Field Care for the Combat Medic

COL Sean Keenan, a former Special Forces Group Surgeon defines prolonged field care (PFC) as "taking care of a patient who you know needs to be somewhere else for much longer than you are comfortable with.”

"Role I medical providers, whether that’s the platoon medic, or the Physician Assistant working in the battalion aid station (BAS) do not have patient holding capabilities. They have neither the equipment nor the space to take care of a patient who isn’t either being evacuated or returned to duty. PFC isn’t intended to create holding capability. PFC is meant to address the training gap which becomes apparent when MEDEVAC isn’t on their way and you are forced to hold your sick patient."

How Does this Match Up to the 68W MOS?

1. Monitoring. At a minimum, the average combat medic or corpsman should be able to measure a patient’s blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, and temperature without any advanced equipment.

2. Resuscitation. One of the principles of Remote Damage Control Resuscitation (RCDR) is aggressive fluid resuscitation with fresh whole blood (FWB).

3. Ventilation & Oxygenation. It all comes back to the basics with respiration. The goal here is to optimize ventilation and mitigate or prevent ARDS or other positive pressure ventilation associated illnesses.

4. Managing the Airway. While the “gold standard” for an airway is a cuff inflated in the trachea, evidence shows that even well-trained medics and corpsmen have difficulty achieving endotracheal intubation.

5. Controlling Pain. Medic carries the Combat Wound Medication Pack (CWMP) with acetaminophen, oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) lozenges, and IV/IO or IM Ketamine.

6. Patient Assessment. A basic assessment requires no additional gear, and knowledge weighs nothing in a rucksack. All medics should be able to perform a physical exam without the use of advanced diagnostics and develop an awareness of unseen injuries.

7. Ongoing Care. While there are few specific tasks associated with nursing care, it is a vital component of keeping your patient relatively healthy and happy.

8. Performing Procedures. Basic interventions save lives.

9. Calling for Help. Communication is a base-level warrior task in which all Soldiers should be proficient. What is said once communication is established, on the other hand, takes practice.

10. Preparing for Evacuation. Combat medics having the knowledge to effectively anticipate and prepare for common problems encountered with evacuation will pay dividends for patient outcome.

Read the entire article at: https://nextgencombatmedic.com/2017/06/15/prolonged-field-care-for-the-combat-medic/

05/01/2026

Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) in WWII

The Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) was established to provide conscientious objectors with a structured vehicle for active service and mitigate acute domestic labor shortages within the healthcare sector.

The organization’s operational scope was defined by five primary strategic activities:

1. Air-raid Relief and Domestic Hospital Support: This foundational pillar focused on bolstering Britain's strained medical infrastructure. Volunteers underwent a rigorous six-week training camp before being deployed as medical orderlies or porters in approximately 80 understaffed hospitals. As the Blitz intensified in September 1940, these roles evolved into multifaceted "Work Squads" responsible for shelter management, transport, and emergency structural repairs.

2. Support for Armies in the Field: Integration with military structures to provide frontline medical aid and casualty transport.

3. Civilian Clinics Overseas: The establishment of clinical and social services in post-conflict or underserved regions such as Syria, Lebanon, and Ethiopia.

4. Asian Relief Operations: Large-scale interventions in China and India focusing on medical supply chains and disaster relief.

5. Mainland European Civilian Relief: Comprehensive welfare, transport, and health services in liberated territories and refugee camps.

Later in the war the FAU was integrated into military operations.
The transition of civilian volunteers into active military theaters represented a significant paradigm shift for the FAU. By integrating non-combatants into Casualty Clearing Stations and Mobile Hospitals, the FAU provided critical medical capacity to military structures, allowing military personnel to focus on high-intensity combat requirements. This strategic integration ensured that the chain of evacuation and immediate clinical care remained robust even during rapid tactical shifts.

The FAU’s geographic footprint within military structures was expansive:
North Africa: Units served with the 8th Army, advancing from El Alamein through Tripoli and Sousse.

Italy: Deployment followed the 8th Army’s campaign through the Italian peninsula.
The Middle East: Collaboration with a Free French Mobile Hospital in Syria and North Africa.

In these theaters, FAU members performed specialized roles as ambulance drivers, medical orderlies, and blood transfusion technicians. These personnel acted as critical force multipliers for the military medical corps, ensuring that life-saving interventions reached the wounded with greater efficiency. This phase of the FAU’s evolution demonstrated their ability to operate under fire, bridging the gap between frontline combat support and the broader mission of long-term civilian medical stabilization.

Article in the comments!

04/26/2026

Donald Schon’s The Reflective Practitioner critiques the dominant model of Technical Rationality, which views professional work as a rigid application of scientific theory to instrumental problems.

He argues that this traditional approach creates a crisis of confidence, as it fails to account for the complexity, uncertainty, and value conflicts inherent in real-world practice.

To bridge this gap, Schon introduces the concept of reflection-in-action, an artistic and intuitive process where professionals "think on their feet" to restructure messy situations.

By surfacing tacit knowing, the unspoken intelligence embedded in skillful performance, practitioners can engage in on-the-spot experimentation to solve unique problems.

Ultimately, the Schon advocates for a new epistemology of practice that honors the artistry and professional wisdom required to navigate unstable environments.

Link to the book in comments

04/22/2026

Only 31% accuracy on a life-saving procedure. Better training could change survival outcomes.
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A randomized controlled trial tested needle chest decompression accuracy under stress.
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What's shocking is that there is no difference in the results between high-stress and controlled environments.
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Medical providers were more accurate at the 2nd intercostal site than the 5th, even though they believed both were equally easy.
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This reveals a gap between knowledge and ex*****on.
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🔗 Read the full study and stay clinically sharp.
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https://tinyurl.com/t42kehe8
​

04/19/2026

This CSIS report examines how Russia is building a sovereign AI-driven drone ecosystem shaped by wartime pressure in Ukraine.

Rather than competing in frontier AI, Russia pursues applied, dual-use AI integrated into unmanned systems at the tactical edge.

The ecosystem blends bottom-up civilian innovation with top-down state scaling, producing autonomous capabilities faster than traditional defense-industrial models would allow. Despite sanctions, Russia continues accessing Western commercial semiconductors that form the hardware backbone of its battlefield AI.

The central U.S. policy lesson is that ecosystem coherence, not individual programs, determines success in AI-enabled unmanned warfare.

Five Key Points

1. Russia has likely fielded a fully autonomous combat drone (V2U) operating without communications, using onboard AI for target selection, and exhibiting rudimentary swarm coordination via visual wing markings, representing a qualitative shift in battlefield autonomy.

2. Over 50% of AI-enabling components in Russian drones originate from U.S.-headquartered firms, exposing a critical structural vulnerability in Western export control and sanctions regimes.

3. Russia’s most effective innovation follows a “garage-to-scale” pattern, civilian engineers develop battlefield solutions informally, then the state finances and mass-produces only proven systems.

4. Private drone schools and training networks are central combat power multipliers, creating faster feedback loops between operators and engineers than formal military institutions can match.

5. Russia is not pursuing frontier AI, it adapts open-weight Western and Chinese models (Llama, Mistral, DeepSeek) into practical military applications, prioritizing deployable capability over foundational research.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Kateryna Bondar analyzes how Russia is leveraging applied AI and building drone ecosystem, combining decentralized innovation, commercial tech, and state coordination to accelerate battlefield autonomy.

04/09/2026

PLA “Precision Strike” in the Cognitive Domain

Researchers from China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) published a framework applying a “precision strike” concept to PLA cognitive domain operations, covert efforts to shape foreign audiences’ perceptions and behaviors. 

The concept treats AI, big data, and machine learning as the engine of these operations, enabling adversaries to build detailed behavioral profiles, what the authors call “intelligent portraits”, of target audiences in order to identify vulnerabilities and optimal moments to inject influence messaging.

Tailored content serves as the “ammunition,” designed to match an audience’s cognitive profile to core themes such as legal persuasion, emotional appeal, military deterrence, and martial mobilization. 

Western social media platforms, Facebook for agenda-setting, X for action coordination, and YouTube for content dissemination, are explicitly identified as the primary battlefield for these cognitive strikes. 

While significant obstacles remain, particularly Western dominance of the international media landscape, this framework signals that PLA information and psychological operations are becoming increasingly data-driven, targeted, and sophisticated.

Five Key Points

1. The PLA is militarizing influence operations with a precision fires mindset.
The “precision strike” concept directly mirrors military targeting logic, using data collection and algorithmic analysis to identify cognitive vulnerabilities, select optimal timing, and deliver tailored messaging with maximum effect.  This framing means commanders should treat adversary influence operations with the same analytical rigor applied to kinetic fires.

2. AI and big data are the critical enablers, not the message itself.
Behavioral data collection and algorithmic targeting enabled by AI and machine learning are seen as the “fuel” and “engine” of cognitive domain operations, facilitating the monitoring, collection, analysis, and evaluation of a target audience over time.  The implication for the force is that data hygiene and digital footprint awareness are now readiness issues, not just personal privacy concerns.

3. The goal is to build self-reinforcing information ecosystems around target audiences.
The authors conceive of tailored messaging being used to build “information cocoons”, insulated and self-reinforcing media ecosystems that limit a target audience’s exposure to outside information.  For military leaders, this means adversaries are not simply pushing false narratives; they are engineering the information environment so competing narratives never reach the intended audience.

4. Western social media platforms are explicitly named as the operational terrain.
The NUDT researchers assert that Facebook is used for agenda-setting, while X and YouTube are used for coordinating actions and disseminating content, what the authors call “bombardment.”  Soldiers and units with public social media presences are operating on ground the PLA has already mapped and contested.

5. PLA cognitive operations doctrine draws directly from CCP propaganda strategy.
Precision strike’s parallels to the CCP’s “precise communication” strategy showcase the degree to which PLA information and psychological operations are informed by the Party’s broader propaganda work, and analysis of China’s propaganda ecosystem can inform how the PLA will seek to influence foreign audiences in the future.  This integration of Party strategy and military ex*****on means IO planners should analyze CCP external messaging as a leading indicator of future PLA influence campaigns.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Link to full article in the comments!

04/08/2026

European Medics presents potential vehicle set-ups when planning MEDEVAC platforms.

In a prolonged casualty care situation, the longer you delay necessary evacuation the less likely the patient will survive. Understanding the assets and resources around you will be intricate for real world planning and support.

When considering vehicle options, keep in mind it is important to have reduced detectability by enemy troops, vehicles must offer enough space to hold a team of medical providers, the casualty, and equipment, and to be able to handle the terrain.

In addition to a vehicle asset and medical team, it is important to understand the logistical aspects such as route selection, evacuation routes, link up criteria, communications, and security.

What are other considerations?