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HOHENFELS, Germany — An observer coach/trainer with Adler Team, Joint Multinational Readiness Center, 7th Army Training Command, and his daughter, a logistics officer with Headquarters Distribution Company, Light Support Battalion, 173rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), are both serving in the U.S. Army but filling very different roles during exercise Saber Junction 26, Aug. 15-Sept. 13, at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center’s Hohenfels Training Area, Germany.

A father and daughter serving in the U.S. Army at the same time may not be unusual, but the odds of both participating in Saber Junction 26, an annual combat training center exercise focused on validating the readiness and lethality of U.S. Army Europe and Africa forces, are slim.

“I joined the Army in 1994 because my grandfather was in the Army. Watching him through my years as a child, I always had respect for what he had done, so I decided that’s what I wanted to do,” said U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Kerry Schnitz.

“It’s an honor to have served seven years in the U.S. Army Reserve and 25 years on active duty,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“He is getting closer to retirement every day, but not quite as close as you would think,” said U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Karissa Schnitz.

“He’s probably held every position possible on the enlisted side, from being a basic training drill sergeant, first sergeant, command sergeant major and now an OC,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“Top four in my career is being selected to be a drill sergeant, my time as a first sergeant, being selected to go to the Sergeants Major Academy and being out here in the box for my last rotation with my daughter,” said Kerry Schnitz.
“I’m a senior sustainment noncommissioned officer who observes, coaches and trains brigade support battalions or light support battalions during a rotation,” said Kerry Schnitz.

He said his role on this rotation of Saber Junction 26 is to observe, coach and train the Light Support Battalion, 173rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne).

“Being assigned to JMRC as an OC/T has really enabled me to see sustainment as a big enterprise and how the Army is changing, becoming a lighter and more lethal force,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“Right now with my position, my rank, what I bring is the workload of the TAC,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“During this exercise I am the TAC – 1 battle captain who is receiving and sending forward all the battle tracking information and receiving and sending forward everything for sustainment to the CLCs,” said Karissa Schnitz.

Combat logistics companies provide forward sustainment to maneuver units, while the brigade support area serves as the brigade’s larger logistics hub. In other words, her tactical command post element sits between the forward combat logistics companies and the larger brigade support area, helping connect the forward fight to the brigade’s main sustainment hub.

“To me, to participate in the same exercise is huge personally because, as I’ve said before, one of the main things I’ve learned from him is giving it all you’ve got, and I think he gives this exercise everything that he has,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“Observing, coaching and training. We provide feedback to the rotational training unit, 173rd Airborne Brigade, for sustainment on what they’re doing right and what they could do a little bit different,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“And we provide that feedback to them so at the end of the day they can leave here a more trained and lethal organization,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“I don’t think it’s any different knowing that he’s an evaluator,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“Like I said, he gives it all to any job that he has and he’s not losing that posture at all just because I’m out here,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“I think it’s pretty cool and I’m not sure a lot of people realize, but this is his very last rotation so he’ll be PCS’ing next month,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“Just being able to have this opportunity and being able to see the training that she’s going through and seeing that it all pays off and knowing that she’s going to be a better officer for coming through the training,” said Kerry Schnitz.

Kerry Schnitz said he looks forward to seeing her take what she learned during the exercise and apply it throughout her military career.

“I’ve been here for two years, and being able to end my time as an OC/T with the Adler Team and having my daughter be a part of the rotational training unit in the LSB, which the Adler Team is OC’ing, has just been probably the biggest highlight of my career,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“Seeing her serve just puts me at ease knowing that I will be able to retire knowing that we have the best of the best out here training and are ready for anything our nation calls us for,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“Her very first rotation and my last,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“My little experience, this being my first rotation, the best I can do is do what I know to do to the best capability and learn and soak in as much information as I possibly can,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“I mean, just experience and time in real-world scenarios, he has me beat by a million miles on that one,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“If I could give her one piece of advice for her military career it would be to never compromise her integrity, keep pushing and always accept challenges that are involved with what we do,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“To be on a training and have my daughter here on my last rotation, her first rotation really, just solidifies the fact that her training and everything she’s learned is culminating in this event,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“To me, and I think to both of us, it’s kind of a passing off of the torch moment,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“I couldn’t be prouder to be wearing this uniform and standing next to him,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“I’m super proud of him and he is my real-life hero,” said Karissa Schnitz.

“The Army has been great to myself and my family, and it’s great to see my daughter carry on this tradition,” said Kerry Schnitz.

“It’s great to see her out here training and she’ll be able to take it from here,” said Kerry Schnitz.

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan – The U.S. Marine Corps deploys Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 533, also known as the “Hawks,” an F-35B Lightning II squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, under the Marine Corps’ Unit Deployment Program (UDP) on Sept. 5, 2026. VMFA-533 joins Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, and will conduct aviation operations and maintain combat readiness throughout the Indo-Pacific region. VMFA-533 will integrate as the new UDP squadron, replacing the current UDP squadron, VMFA-232.

The Unit Deployment Program provides continental U.S.-based units with experience operating in the Indo-Pacific through continuous and overlapping deployments to the region. The Hawks will augment 1st Marine Aircraft Wing’s ability to provide combat-ready, task-organized aviation forces capable of operating from naval and expeditionary environments. This enhances operational readiness, promotes regional stability, and demonstrates the United States’ enduring commitment to the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security.

BEMOWO PISKIE TRAINING AREA, Poland — On the morning of Sept. 2, 2026, teams gathered to begin the two-day Exercise Masurian Patrol at the Bemowo Piskie Training Area in Poland.

The exercise was named for the Masurian region, where the training area is located. The British-run competition is based on Exercise Cambrian Patrol, which normally takes place in the rugged Cambrian Mountains and swampland of mid-Wales.

“A well-drilled and highly capable team that performed with real professionalism,” said the British sergeant major of B Squadron, Light Dragoons. “They demonstrated outstanding resilience, toughness and determination throughout, underpinned by a high level of training, discipline and teamwork.”

The sergeant major was speaking about the U.S. Army eight-man team assigned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment.

The competition included four teams from the British Army’s B Squadron, Light Dragoons, and one team from the Polish Armed Forces’ 5th Masovian Territorial Defense Brigade.

The first day of the competition featured several events. Leading the group of eight from Charlie Company was Staff Sgt. Kevin Ortega.

“From the patrol and bayonet lane to the medical lane, movement to contact, land navigation and reporting, every event tested our teamwork and leadership,” Ortega said.

The competition pushed Ortega’s team physically and mentally.

“Carrying 70-pound rucks for 20 miles through extremely dense marshland left us soaked, muddy and exhausted, but we kept each other motivated and continued moving forward,” Ortega said.

The British sergeant major noted, “Every time I saw them, they had a smile on their faces, regardless of how hard or long the tasks were.”

Ortega’s team maintained its morale under pressure, which brought the members closer together. The team excelled on the second day, which included a timed ruck march followed by shooting the British Army’s L85A3 assault rifle.

Ortega said he walked away more confident in his teammates, his leadership abilities and his ability to keep pushing when conditions become difficult.

Etched into the landscape and spaced in a strategic grid across miles of sagebrush steppe, 1,001 concrete “igloos” rise above the arid high-desert plains. Built in 1941, in the lead-up to WWII, they were used to store munitions until the end of the Cold War. Their presence still leaves a permanent mark on the geography and history of this region of Eastern Oregon.

Nestled among these long-forgotten fortified bunkers lies another kind of refuge: hidden underground shelters built to safeguard and revive the vulnerable Western Burrowing Owl populations that call this land home.

The former Umatilla Chemical Depot, officially closed in 2012 as part of the Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure process, still has more than 200 miles of roads, many of the original military post buildings, machine shops, and warehouses, and 40 miles of unused railroad tracks. Recently, new training facilities and military accommodations have been constructed. These updates are now part of the Rees Training Center (RTC), which uses 7,500 acres of the original 16,000-acre site.

On a warm, windy afternoon on June 10, Rhande Shaw leads a group of volunteers and military service members as they hike to a small hilltop after driving several miles along a series of roads from the operations hub at RTC, which still extends to the former depot boundaries where numerous igloos still stand. There, anticipation quickly gives way to discovery as they locate one of the 29 ingenious artificial burrow sets, constructed from recycled juice barrels, corrugated pipe, and buckets. The juxtaposition of these durable shelters against the open landscape stands out as the group scans the horizon, eager for a glimpse of an adult owl taking flight.

Shaw is a Natural Resources Program Manager for the Oregon Military Department. Her team manages the Oregon Army National Guard’s military training lands statewide, caring for forests, grasslands, high-desert plains, rivers, estuaries, and wildlife-rich wetlands. She is now focused on helping the Burrowing Owls that migrate through this land by explaining how they travel, hunt, and build their homes in burrows. This area also has a long history of people moving through it. Just north of where the group stands, Lewis and Clark led the Corps of Discovery along the Columbia River in 1805-1806, and Oregon Trail settlers followed during the great migration era from 1843 to 1860.

“On the land that is now part of the Rees Training Center, we maintain 29 artificial burrows, and we have already been here in May to conduct the first check on these burrows,” she said as the group inspected the first stop of the day. “The males return early to secure the best burrows to attract a mate; often that’s in February or March. This is important because the population of coupled owls has grown to over a hundred just a couple of years ago.”

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla (Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla), which traded with the Lewis and Clark expedition more than 220 years ago, are now using 4,000 acres set aside from the former depot lands to support conservation and maintain the remaining 55 artificial burrows. TheColumbia Development Authority has taken over the remaining area and plans to redevelop it.

“All of this has been an ongoing recovery process since 2008, before the depot was officially closed and the land divided, when the Army’s wildlife manager could identify only four pairs of nesting owls,” Shaw said. “As the number of owl pairs continues to rise, so does the number of owlets each year.”

The recovery of the owl population began with assistance from the Global Owl Project, established by David “DJ” Johnson in response to a 2007 request from Don Gillis, then OMD’s natural resources manager, who sought to understand the causes of the owl population’s decline, which was on the brink of collapse.

The natural burrows had begun to disappear over time as badger burrows were lost after decades of military development and fence construction. Having used wooden crates to create artificial burrows, “DJ” turned to recycled containers from Tree Top, a Washington-based applesauce and juice company.

Johnson’s team constructed four sites, each with two burrows. Female owls selected one burrow to lay eggs, while males used the other to store prey such as mice, insects, and small snakes. The initial expectation was to attract four owl pairs, one per site. However, nine nesting pairs were observed in the first year, and the number rose to 32 the following year.

“The system in place now is designed to last 10 to 15 years and can be relocated if military training areas change or if we see that the burrows are no longer attracting owls to their current locations,” Shaw said. “These are some of the advantages of artificial burrows. Their design allows us to study the owls with minimal disturbance to their shelter.”

Each juice barrel is equipped with a small pail attached to the top, which researchers lift to access the underground chamber. The entrance tubes for the owls are positioned just above ground, measuring 10 to 12 feet in length and nearly 6 inches in diameter, and lead to the nesting and food storage area. The female typically lays seven to twelve eggs and incubates them for about four weeks. During this time, the male provides food for the female. After the eggs hatch, both parents feed the offspring until they reach approximately three months of age.

Shaw and the volunteers examined three shelters, each offering insight into the developmental progress of its burrow. At the first location, they found two eggs, both nonviable. The second shelter contained two nestling owls, estimated to be 23 days old. Shaw and Jon Bloom, a Natural Resource Specialist with the Oregon Military Department, referenced a laminated booklet featuring photographs depicting various growth stages to estimate the owls’ ages. Based on this assessment, they concluded that the owls were just over halfway to maturity, as Western Burrowing Owls require 42 days to reach adulthood.

“Over time, the data we have collected has helped track the growth of the owls here at Rees Training Center,” Bloom said, noting that the owls are no longer being banded. “Many of the owls still have the bands, and we record them, but the emphasis continues to focus on the overall habitat and the conditions of the burrows.”

This week, many of the volunteers are Oregon National Guard Soldiers conducting their annual training at RTC. They have each signed up to help out and to get to know the training lands they share with the owls. The soldiers are excited to shovel sandy soil around the burrows and to learn more about these birds of prey.

“What a great opportunity to introduce our Soldiers to the owls while they are here for annual training. This is a chance for them to understand all aspects of the training area here at Rees (Training Center),” said Janet Johnson [no relation to DJ Johnson], a Natural Resources Manager for the Oregon Military Department.

On June 11, Johnson was leading a mixed group of soldiers and civilian volunteers on a morning excursion to check several burrows. As the group arrived, one of the adult owls was perched near the burrow’s entrance on a small hill. It took flight as the group left their vehicles, circling the area before disappearing into the distance. Pointing out the entrance, Johnson described the rock pile buildup there as a way to keep predators out.

“Inside the nest chamber, we have also put in a steel mesh so predators cannot enter through the bottom,” Johnson said as she began to remove several baby owls from the open chamber. “The number one thing we want to accomplish with these artificial burrows is to grow the population.”

When the owls are placed in a separate bucket, they emit a long, rattling hiss. Johnson said the sound mimics a rattlesnake’s warning rasp, signaling to predators that a dangerous snake could be nearby. After a while, the owls grow calm, allowing the volunteers to gently hold and observe them. In the chamber, the remains of their meals are inspected: fragments of insects, bits of a lizard, and tiny bones of mice, small rodents, reveal what has been sustaining these birds.

“On average, these birds can live from six to eight years,” she said. “In 2024, we had a bumper crop of babies, 102 pairs. So this has been a huge success, and this is the most successful nesting colony for growing owls of its kind in the United States.”

The group gently passes the small birds from hand to hand, their bright yellow eyes noticing every movement, and their intricate, beautiful, speckled brown-and-white plumage providing effective camouflage among the brown sagebrush and other vegetation of the native habitat. Their camouflage patterns and colors, in many ways, resemble the configuration of the soldiers holding them.

Just a few weeks earlier, soldiers assigned to the 442nd Engineer Utilities Detachment were conducting pre-deployment training for a yearlong deploymentto theHorn of Africa. They were on the dry riverbed portion of the training range, outside the maintained burrowing area, when a heavy machine operator spotted an owl perched near a potential natural nest burrow. They halted operations in the area, notified range control to report the owls, and immediately roped off the site.

“The soldiers knew exactly what to do when they saw the activity and called in to range control,” Johnson said. “This was not a good area for owls, so we needed to check whether the nest had eggs.”

Until they lay eggs, they are not protected under the Migratory Bird Act, so it was important to see whether the nest now contained eggs. Shaw and Bloom set up a game camera outside the area and then used a burrow camera to see if anything was in the chamber. With no signs of nesting, they collapsed the chamber to have the owls move out of the area.

“The state of Washington has listed them as a threatened species, but Oregon has not, and for now they are not on the federal species list. That’s where the DoD wants to keep them,” Johnson said, explaining why it’s important to keep the species common. “We need to keep our training lands free of restrictions, which means more paperwork, consultations, and restrictions. My number one job is to make sure that training can continue into perpetuity and without restrictions.”

With the summer nesting period coming to a close, the OMD Environmental team was busy checking on the remaining active nests, even as severe wildland fire throughout the state and region threatened the habitat and strained food supplies for the owls.

“We had 99 fledglings on the OMD property this year. This is a slight decline in survivorship compared with 2024, but we know survivorship ebbs and flows,” Shaw said after reviewing the data in late August. “Fires did not affect the owls on the depot, and it is always something we worry about.”

When reviewing the numbers, Shaw noted that the 99 fledglings from the 29 maintained OMD/RTC side had an 81.25 percent success rate. This was calculated as the total number of nests that fledged at least one chick, divided by the total number of nesting attempts, giving a productivity rate of 3.4 fledglings per breeding pair.

“There are a few theories that could account for this, from warmer winter temperatures to a lower prey base during peak hatching times, but these are just educated guesses, Shaw said, taking into account the drier and warmer weather in the first part of 2026. “I think the biggest impact was the warm and dry winter going into spring in the region.”

The tireless efforts to protect burrowing owls continue. When natural nesting spots are scarce, these artificial burrows have offered these remarkable birds a lifeline. With careful placement and ongoing care, these man-made homes have boosted nesting success, increased occupancy, and helped secure the future of the burrowing owl population in the western part of the country.

Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, Alaska — The 11th Airborne Division is forged in the Arctic, but its
battlefield extends far beyond Alaska. Across the Pacific, Arctic Angels are training nearly
simultaneously during Yama Sakura 91 and Orient Shield 26 in Japan, Yudh Abhyas 2026 in
India, and Super Garuda Shield 26 in Indonesia. Separated by thousands of miles, the
exercises place 11th Airborne Division Soldiers in different terrain, climates and formations
alongside some of the United States’ closest allies and partners, all with a common purpose:
build combat ready forces capable of moving, integrating and fighting together when required.

“The Arctic is our expertise, but it is not our limitation,” said Maj. Gen. John P. Cogbill,
commanding general, 11th Airborne Division. “What you see across the Pacific is a division
demonstrating that it can move forces across the theater, integrate with our allies and partners
and remain ready to fight wherever the mission demands. From Alaska to Japan, India and
Indonesia, our Soldiers are proving the reach, readiness and lethality this division brings to the
region.”

Alaska is where that capability is forged. Extreme cold, isolation, limited infrastructure and vast
distances leave little room for weakness. Soldiers must be able to survive, communicate,
sustain themselves and accomplish the mission when the environment is actively working
against them. That training produces formations accustomed to operating under pressure,
solving problems with limited resources and continuing the mission when conditions deteriorate.
The temperature and terrain may change across the Pacific, but the requirement for leaders to be
engaged and build lethal formations does not.

In Indonesia, 11th Airborne Division Soldiers participating in Super Garuda Shield 26 are
training alongside the Indonesian National Armed Forces and multinational partners. The
exercise includes jungle training, a partnered joint forcible entry operation and follow on field
training designed to increase the ability of participating forces to operate as a combined team.
The dense vegetation, heat and humidity create a problem set far removed from the Arctic, but
they demand the same fundamentals: understand the terrain, maintain communications, sustain
the force and preserve momentum against an opposing force.

In India, Arctic Angels are training alongside the Indian Army during Yudh Abhyas 2026. The
bilateral exercise strengthens the ability of U.S. and Indian forces to operate together in
demanding environments while building upon the partnership reinforced during Yudh Abhyas
2025 in Alaska. Mountainous and austere terrain places additional demands on Soldiers and
leaders, requiring formations capable of adapting quickly, sustaining combat power and
continuing operations when normal advantages become difficult to maintain.

“We optimize to train in the extreme cold, high latitude, mountainous terrain and by operating in
the harshest environment in the world,” said Command Sgt. Maj. David P. Hanson, command
sergeant major, 11th Airborne Division. “We can operate anywhere in the Pacific.”

At the same time, 11th Airborne Division Soldiers in Japan are strengthening the command-and-
control and interoperability required for combined operations. During Yama Sakura 91, Soldiers
are working alongside the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and Australian Army during a
trilateral command post exercise focused on the ability to plan, synchronize and command
forces across a complex battlefield. The exercise requires staff from three nations to overcome
differences in doctrine, terminology, systems and processes in order to build the shared
understanding required to make decisions and synchronize effects at the speed of combat.

Following the conclusion of Yama Sakura 91, 11th Airborne Division Soldiers will transition into
Orient Shield 26, continuing bilateral training with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. The
exercise will provide another opportunity to strengthen U.S.-Japan warfighting capability and
build upon the relationships, systems and interoperability developed through repeated training
together. While Yama Sakura focuses on trilateral command-and-control alongside Japanese
and Australian forces, Orient Shield will continue the division’s progression of training in Japan
and reinforce the ability of U.S. and Japanese forces to operate together in competition, crisis or
conflict.

The scale of the division’s participation across the Pacific is itself a demonstration of readiness.
The 11th Airborne Division is not concentrating its forces on a single training area, exercise or
mission. Elements of the formation are operating across multiple countries and environments
during the same training period while the division continues to maintain forces and
responsibilities in Alaska. In a theater defined by immense distances, that ability to operate
distributed requires forces that can deploy, sustain themselves, communicate across distance,
integrate with partners and remain capable of closing with and defeating an enemy.

The Arctic prepares Soldiers for that kind of fight. Alaska forces Soldiers and leaders to operate
when equipment is stressed, movement is difficult, resources are limited and the environment
punishes mistakes. Those conditions build disciplined formations that understand how to
maintain combat power when circumstances are at their worst. When Arctic Angels leave
Alaska, they carry those lessons with them.

From the Arctic to the mountains of India, the jungles of Indonesia and training areas across
Japan, the 11th Airborne Division is demonstrating that its Soldiers are not defined by a single
environment. The Arctic is where they are forged. The Pacific is where they prove that capability
can translate anywhere the mission demands.

Naval Medical Forces Pacific hosted a senior delegation of Japanese government and officials, clinical leaders and academic researchers Aug. 25, 2026, to deepen bilateral medical collaboration and examine the operational requirements of maritime healthcare across the vast Indo-Pacific region.

Led by Jun Tsushima, state minister of the Cabinet Office of Japan, the delegation met with NMFP leadership to exchange expertise on shipboard medical doctrine, underway clinical training, emergency response integration and the future architecture of afloat hospital platforms.

Rear Adm. Kevin Brown, commander of NMFP and director of Defense Health Network-Pacific Rim, provided the delegates with an overview of the command’s expansive area of responsibility. Central to the command’s mission is the preparation and sustainment of a ready medical force capable of rapidly mobilizing from shore to operational theaters, including deployments aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy.

“The vast majority of our doctors, nurses, corpsmen and clinical support specialists work daily within our shore hospitals and clinics delivering routine patient care,” Brown said. “When a crisis emerges and the USNS Mercy receives operational tasking, we draw those ready deployable medical teams from our medical treatment facilities to perform life-saving care in theater while keeping our military treatment facilities prepared to receive returning casualties.”

For Japanese leadership, cultivating maritime medical capability represents both an urgent humanitarian requirement and a vital defense priority. Tsushima explained that while Japan’s health care system is highly effective in executing medical responses on land, its experience in delivering care at sea remains limited. Because Japan is surrounded by water and frequently impacted by natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons, he emphasized the critical importance of developing shipboard medical capabilities to support emergency care.

During the discussion, delegates explored the operational trade-offs between large floating hospitals and smaller, specialized vessels. Brown outlined current U.S. Navy modernization concepts, highlighting the ongoing requirement for agile, shallow-draft platforms capable of delivering Role 2 damage-control resuscitation and stabilization close to contested waters, alongside future long-term planning to replace aging 1980s-era converted tanker hospital ships with modern Role 3 afloat medical capabilities.

Addressing questions from Yoichi Koida of the Japan Institute for Health Security, Brown noted that the strategic geography of the Pacific dictates the evolution in combat casualty care and medical evacuation doctrine.

“Over the past 30 years, our ability to move life-saving surgical teams near the point of injury and evacuate casualties through an uncontested medical evacuation system was the greatest contributor to combat survival rates,” Brown explained. “However, in a conflict across the Pacific, we might not always have the luxury of uninterrupted command of the air and sea, or continuous electronic communications. Planners are exploring various concepts, including leveraging highly mobile, agile afloat medical platforms capable of delivering immediate damage-control surgery in communications-suppressed environments.”

Clinical workflow was also a central focus of the exchange. John Rotruck, chief medical officer for Defense Health Network-Pacific Rim, highlighted essential design lessons from current operations, recommending that future hospital ship configurations maintain casualty receiving, trauma resuscitation, advanced radiology, surgical suites and intensive care units on the same deck to eliminate vertical patient transport for critically injured individuals.

“Keeping all the most critical parts of the care pathway on the same deck of the ship allows a natural flow of care,” Rotruck said.

Brown also emphasized the Pacific Partnership mission as a proven framework for ongoing coordination between military planners, civilian medical systems and partner nations, recommending Japanese participation in early-stage joint planning cells.

Concluding the exchange, Tsushima expressed strong interest in expanding future bilateral cooperation between the United States and Japan across maritime medical response missions. He emphasized that growing opportunities for joint training, sharing operational experience, and learning from each other will ensure both nations are better prepared to preserve life during natural disasters and complex emergencies.

NMFP provides oversight for 10 Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Commands (NMRTC) on the West Coast and Pacific Rim that train, man and equip medical forces, primarily in military treatment facilities. Globally, NMFP oversees eight research laboratories that deliver research expertise in support of warfighter health and readiness. Additionally, NMFP manages the Naval Expeditionary Medicine Warfighter Development Center (NEMWDC), which plays a critical role in preparing medical teams for expeditionary and operational environments.