Among others, the Commandant of the Bundeswehr Medical Academy, Major General (MC) Dr Gesine Krüger, was pleased to welcome 26 senior officers, including five colonels as well as fifteen employees of civilian governmental and nongovernmental organizations. In her welcome address, the Commandant stressed the importance of exercise preparation and the significance of the underlying script by saying: “The work you are doing here is absolutely indispensable in order to enable the training audience to achieve, maintain and demonstrate their operational readiness. For the medical services of our armed forces, operational readiness means accomplishing our missions in a complex, multinational environment, together with international and civilian partners, organizations and stakeholders. This can only be achieved on the basis of good training and permanent practice. The script is the basis of every exercise – make sure you write a good one – I wish you every success for this task!”

Photo caption: Major General (MC) Dr Gesine Krüger welcomes the scriptwriters of VIGOROUS WARRIOR 2019 (photograph: LTC Wolfgang Diedrich, Bundeswehr Medical Academy)

When looking at the beginnings of the VIGOROUS WARRIOR exercise series, we find that good scripts were not a matter of course, and learning depended on personal experience gained during the exercise. If the exercise force is small and of a manageable size, an experienced directing staff may succeed in keeping the soldiers busy at least. If, however, the scope and the complexity of the exercise increase, only a training scenario tailored to exercise objectives and a good exercise organization will keep us from getting lost. Otherwise, the exercise force will start to feel idle, bored and finally frustrated.

Photo caption: Civil-Military Cooperation Working Group (photograph: LTC Wolfgang Diedrich, Bundeswehr Medical Academy)

Only an exercise scenario and a good script that has been written and coordinated by adequately qualified experts in due time will guarantee that an equally qualified directing staff will be able to guide the soldiers towards achieving the aim set. For the medical forces, coordinated medical play is an integral part of a full-strength exercise in addition to tactical tasks. These two components will be the focus of VIGOROUS WARRIOR 2019.

Photo caption: LTC Dr Daniel Aron, MilMed CoE, and participants writing the script using the tool “Joint Exercise Management Module”, or “JEMM” for short (photograph: LTC Wolfgang Diedrich, Bundeswehr Medical Academy).

If the medical forces can apply their medical abilities in military exercises just like the infantry can use their tactical skills, we are on the right track. But to be honest, we still are not very successful in this respect. The higher the medical echelon, the fewer the training opportunities that are currently provided for medical personnel. This situation is exemplified particularly by the emergency room of a Role 2 medical treatment facility, and by the almost complete lack of training options in the operating theatre.

A good script is the way to start changing this.

(Text: LTC Markus Schardt)