No more golden hour for Marines if we face a peer in combat...casualties are gonna be horrific..

via Marine Corps Times

A lifesaving Defense Department policy that whisks wounded troops off the battlefield to lifesaving care within the first hour of injury is a luxury Marines may not have headed into the next big fight.

The policy is credited with a near 98 percent survival rate, Rear Adm. Colin G. Chinn, Joint Staff surgeon, told audience members at a Navy medical symposium held at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on Wednesday.

But as the U.S. is facing more capable adversaries, it’s a promise the Defense Department no longer believes it can keep.

“The last 15 years of war we pretty much adapted to the operational environment and dominated it,” Chinn said. “We are not going to have all the advantages we have now.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joseph Dunford, relayed his concerns about the ‘golden rule’ last week to Chinn, the admiral said.

The ‘golden hour’ policy was put in place by then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in 2009 in an effort to stem the tide of increasing battlefield casualties. It was a promise by the DoD to surge medical assets and rotary wing support to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to save the lives of troops wounded in action.

For the past 15 years the U.S. military has dominated the battlefield, allowing U.S. forces to set the time and space for hostilities. U.S. forces controlled the terrain, and were afforded the ability to move medical assets when and where they wanted.

“But in a future fight that may not be the case,” Chinn said. “We need to be ready now. You fight tonight with what you have.”

Story here. 

Dispersed units at EVEN GREATER distances from the ship than before.  Smaller units that when found will be fixed and if not outright destroyed, need to be rescued, delaying the possibility of getting the wounded out even more.

Yeah.

If we face a peer threat then the casualties will be horrific.  I'm not talking about those killed initially but those few that Doc will keep from sailing that ship to the next world, only to fail because we won't be able to get them back to Regiment where the surgeons are.

Simply amazing, horrifying but amazing.