Sailors and Marines aboard the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) train to respond to casualties of all grades, in war and peace. USS America’s medical department integrates and serves Sailors and Marines alike. As part of a joint effort, the Sailors of the ship and those assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (31st MEU) participate in medical drills to ready their proficiency in trauma care.

“The integration of green and blue side corpsmen is very different, but I like it because you see how everybody’s roles come together,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Jalen King, assigned to the 31st MEU. “We’re going through our fundamentals with one end goal. To get our patient to the next higher echelon of care.”

One aspect of medical readiness is training for mass casualty treatment. Integrated drills serve as a vital training for both blue and green side corpsman. Mass casualty drills are a simulated scenarios that test the capabilities of the integrated Navy and Marine Corps medical team aboard USS America, preparing the providers to treat a strenuous number of inbound casualties. A large influx of patients all at once tests, refines and enhances their current medical capabilities while improving the corpsmen’s abilities to triage a variety of wounded warriors from the battlefield.

“The purpose of the mass casualty drill is always to test your skills. You have to do this to refresh your muscle memory and skills because medicine is always changing,” said Chief Hospital Corpsman Benjamin Guinto, assigned to the 31st MEU. “You need to up to date on the latest instructions, the best way of treating a patient, and all possible medical interventions.”

It is very important that the blue and green side corpsman go through practice drills to create cohesion and efficiency amongst all those involved. Joint training allows for the sharpening of the basic and advanced skills of new members supporting the medical mission, as there is a constant flow of personnel arriving to the ship with each patrol—each with knowledge to be gained and given.

“It is a growing and a learning process, but it is definitely getting better,” said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Dyanna Keiji, assigned to USS America. “I get more confident in our ability to work together as a team if we ever had to actually deal with an actual emergency or influx of mass casualties.”

Each side has a different set of skills, such as field medicine with green side corpsmen and bedside medicine for the blue side corpsmen. It takes time to understand each respective branch’s equipment and techniques. There come some learning curves for the green side corpsman as most are not used to practicing critical care aboard a ship.

“Working with the blue side corpsman during the mass casualty drills has been going pretty well. Having not been on a ship before, I am learning where things are and the process on how they do these drills,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Jomari Cruz, assigned to the 31st MEU. “I am learning a lot from them and it is uplifting.”

Despite being more familiar with the ship and the equipment aboard there are difficulties as well for blue side corpsman—such as fluid communications with the green side or understanding field medical equipment. Sailors who may have only been a blue side corpsman may come across a certain experience or situation that is more familiar to their green side counterpart, so gaining more insight on how to approach and handle a new situation gives greater awareness and overall familiarity with the unknowns that come with the overall job of being a corpsman.

“It is pretty empowering working with the green side corpsmen because they bring a different skill set and we have different backgrounds when we are working together,” said Hospital Corpsman Guadalupe Beech, assigned to Fleet Surgical Team Seven (FST 7). “It always feels like a safe environment to ask questions. If there is something that I do not know, there’s a good chance the green side might know.”

The mass casualty drills help the corpsman train and expect what could come, but it is also informative to the surrounding Sailors who are not directly involved with the drill. The drills display a possible reality at any moment to those who could have a chance to be a helping hand at any given moment.

“From the people that just watch us do the drills, I think it opens their eyes that this is not just practice, this might happen and makes them think what they will you do when this happens,” said Chief Hospital Corpsman Alexander Naval, assigned to FST 7. “As a bystander, what part can you play if the medical team is busy? From stretcher bearers to directing the traffic or controlling the crowd, we need everyone to not just watch, but help the medical team.”

No matter the situation, green and blue side corpsmen continue to work together to grow and evolve their skill set prior to coming together for the drills. The medical world is ever growing and corpsmen continue learning new things every day to help those in their time of need, even if they do not know when that may be.

“The greatest takeaway is that we are learning every day,” said Chief Naval. “For the junior Sailors, this is the biggest learning experience they can get because we are looking at real world scenarios that could happen in the near future, so we are making them ready for any situation. We are here to guide them on what to do and what to expect in case a mass casualty actually happens.”

On this winter patrol, the corpsmen of the USS America and the 31st MEU have worked together tirelessly to improve, grow together, and above all else, be prepared and ready for any situation. The combined forces of the blue and green medical team have seen the self-improvement amongst each other and within themselves, feeling more ready than ever as they continue to treat the integrated Navy and Marine Corps teams.

“The integration between the green and blue side has been the best that I have ever seen. I have been in FST 7 since 2022 and I have never seen it this good,” Beech stated, “We communicate daily, we see each other’s patients, and I feel that our morale is good as well.”