Some 40 surgeons and physicians assistants deployed to Iraq converged on the Air Force-run theater hospital at Balad AB, Iraq, to share battlefield medicine techniques. Hospital commander, Air Force Col. Brian Masterson, says that the joint services medical professionals have been able to achieve an astounding 98 percent survival rate “by defining and perfecting a standardization of care.” Col. Mark Richardson and Lt. Col. Craig Silverton developed the daylong Tri-Service Extremity War Surgery Symposium to foster the idea that there is “a standard way of treating wound X with therapy X to yield consistent, positive results,” reports Capt. Ken Hall. The trauma pace at Balad is four times that of stateside trauma centers.
President Donald Trump projected confidence Nov. 19 that a proposed sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia will sail through the Foreign Military Sales process, an early test of the Pentagon’s acquisition reforms. The deal is also likely to face scrutiny from ally Israel over how it could affect the balance…
