JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska —During the culminating training event of exercise Special Operation Forces Arctic Medic 2025, Alaska Army National Guard aviators assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 211th General Support Aviation Battalion landed a HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter on the platform of an Alaska Railroad rail car that was staged on a bridge above the Chena River, in the vicinity of Fairbanks, Alaska, Feb 20, 2025.

The two-wheel touchdown on a rail car had never been attempted by an AKARNG aviator and was a unique training experience for the entire crew. Dissimilar to runway landings or placing the entire aircraft down in an open space, the narrow rail car platform presented additional risk factors like loose debris and the need to precisely calculate the avenue of approach to hover on the rail car, while ground crews unloaded medical equipment and supplies.

The crew also lowered their critical care flight paramedic Staff Sgt. Steven Gildersleeve successfully onto the train to hoist a patient and medically evacuate them using a state-of-the-art hoist approved Patient Isolation Unit called the Operational Rescue Containment Apparatus, used exclusively by the U.S. Coast Guard. The hoist was executed right on target on the narrow landing strip of the rail car. Members of the USCG participated in the collaborative, medical exercise to field this innovative equipment and demonstrate its use cases.

“I am absolutely inspired by the Alaska National Guard team, their knowledge, professionalism, willingness to solve problems with minimal guidance to plan any given mission,” said Col. Manuel Menendez, Command Surgeon with Special Operations Command North and one of the lead planners for the exercise. “The flight crew that landed on the train was not just good, they were amazing and I’m looking forward to my next trip to Alaska to work with them again soon.”

The concept for a rail car operation was to evaluate how traumatically injured and chemically or biologically contaminated casualties could be moved, following decontamination and initial stabilization, via a hospital train.

Historically, the U.S. and NATO forces utilized hospital trains, and this exercise is an early effort to evaluate how this system of casualty movement could be applied to future large scale combat operations where there would be an overwhelming number of casualties coming back from combat. Recognizing that hospital trains would require enroute care, AKARNG flight surgeon, Maj. Titus Rund and Director of Experimentation worked with SOCNORTH to develop an augmented reality system that could be utilized on a mobile platform in austere locations.

This augmented reality system enabled a paramedic known as a “TeleDelgate” to work under the direction of a “TeleMentor” anesthesiologist, surgeon or other specialist to include documenting care. These “TeleMentors” were located at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio,Texas.

The AR system was able to transmit “TeleDelegate” and casualty vital signs in real-time while the subject matter experts as BAMC provided guidance and supervision for anesthesia and airway management, damage control surgical procedures and intensive care measures to patient aboard the moving train.

TeleMentor monitoring of remote vital signs could someday allow a “TeleMentor” to better guide the “TeleDelegate” and make sure that they are providing the best instruction and feedback in real time which would help ensure that a “TeleDelegate” is not overwhelmed during the assigned task(s) and future research efforts should be evaluated looking at this technology.

In this scenario, a train carrying a simulated casualty who was exposed to a potential biological or radiological agent underwent treatment from an isolated railcar. This necessitated “ambulance backhaul” of medical supplies, Low-Titer O whole Blood and chemical countermeasures be delivered by the helicopter to get to the treatment and containment areas.

The combined air and ground mission bolstered a joint effort between NORTHCOM executed through SOCNORTH, SOCOM, U.S Customs and Border Protection – BORSTAR, the FBI, the U.S. Army, USCG, U.S. Air Force Reserves, AKNG, Alaska Railroad Corporation and University of Alaska Fairbanks Drone Program for all air and ground assets involved. Exercise planners brought the respective branches and agencies’ best equipment and practices to the fight.

The aviators supported the exercise from Feb.18-21 and transported simulated casualties to collection points while providing hoist capabilities to exercise participants. SOFAM 2025 saw some of the nation’s most elite warriors and field surgeons converge on Yukon Training Area near Ft. Wainwright to train on extreme cold weather medical care.

The AKARNG crew included pilot in command Chief Warrant Officer 3 JD Miller, support pilot Chief Warrant Officer 2 David Berg, crew chief Sgt..1st Class Brad Mckenzie, and flight medics Staff Sgt. Steven Gildersleeve and Staff Sgt. Michael Crane.

Miller, the company standardization pilot for the 2-211 GSAB worked with Rund as they prepared for successful mission execution. Berg, who is based out of Juneau, took this opportunity to fly this mission to enhance his core competencies and skills.

“I think a big part of what we brought to the fight here was our depth of experience working in these cold weather conditions and our ability to work with and coordinate with a multitude of different units to include active-duty troops, federal, state and local agencies,” said Berg. “We really want to push that we’re open for business in working with all of our training partners to hone our skillsets and relationships.”

Rund coordinated with the Alaska Railroad Corporation to provide the U.S. Army with railcars for the training event which included the Black Hawk landing, hoisting and enroute testing of the Augmented Reality TeleDelegated system on a moving train.

“We’re honored to be able to serve our communities and military,” said Tom Covington, Director of Safety for the ARRC. “We’ve been able to observe the military’s approach to utilizing these railcars over the course of this exercise and it’s given us insight into how we can improve our cold weather survival capabilities as an organization.”

This medical training and experimentation centered exercise enhanced casualty care and medical evacuation proficiencies with standard, nonstandard and experimental equipment from across the U.S. military and its NATO partner forces. Rund and his team coordinated with exercise leaders to get the AKARNG crew involved and to be part of the next era of warfighting in the Arctic as the SOCNORTH team work to establish medical requirements for operations in arctic or extreme cold environments.

“It’s fantastic being able to work with team leadership like Doc Rund and see the work that he’s put in and the people he’s surrounded himself with to accomplish this,” Berg said. “He talked about this training evolution and told us he sees us having an integral part in it. It’s the way of the future and a good test of expanding our horizons and opportunities for what we can achieve together.”