Exercise Ultimate Caduceus 2025, involving about 1,000 military and civilian personnel from Travis Air Force base and emergency responders.
This exercise actively tested how the emergency response teams work together as part of the National Disaster Medical System to save lives during a potential national crisis.
Excerpt from the Air Force Medical Service report, “The exercise created realistic crisis scenarios that prompted a large-scale military patient movement response from within the Indo-Pacific region,” said Air Force Col. Christopher Backus, command surgeon, U.S. Transportation Command. Patients were received at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, and Travis Air Force Base, California, and then transported to federal coordinating centers and medical facilities, including Vacaville and Vallejo Medical Centers, Honolulu, Sacramento, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, said Army Maj. Latoya Toler, exercise branch chief, TRANSCOM surgeon general.
As the DOD’s sole manager for global patient movement, TRANSCOM leads aeromedical evacuation missions using high-capacity aircraft and en route care teams to transport personnel from the field to definitive care anywhere in the world.
“This joint and combined DOD, interagency and civilian partner medical team is something to be proud of and you can be assured they’ll move mountains to bring premier care to those who need it,” Backus said.
More than 20 civilian hospitals participated, which is the most integrated into an Ultimate Caduceus exercise, said Nicole Hardy, TRANSCOM’s Ultimate Caduceus program manager.
Besides TRANSCOM, other personnel involved in the exercise are from U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Air Force aeromedical evacuation crews, Army Reserve Medical Command critical care air transport teams, Department of Veterans Affairs, Defense Health Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, as well as other regional health care and emergency response teams. At the enterprise level, DHA remains focused on aligning military health and private sector resources against warfighter requirements and optimizing patient demand…,” said Anthony Ross, Defense Health Agency liaison officer to TRANSCOM.