Special Warfare

June 20, 2025

Drop, Improvise, Win: The OSS in China

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — At 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, 1945, six men flew into the unknown. By sundown, they’d been beaten, stripped, and installed in the nicest hotel in Mukden. None of them knew this was in front of them just seven days earlier. The end of World War II surprised the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). On Aug. 11, 1945, two days after the nuclear attack on Nagasaki, the OSS received the mission to dispatch Mercy Mission teams into China.01 The Japanese had badly treated American prisoners of war, and there were concerns that Japanese officers might execute prisoners rather than return them to American control. As an additional concern, the Soviet Union had invaded Manchuria in northern China on August 9 and were racing towards camps holding American prisoners.

May 15, 2025

Austere Resuscitative and Surgical Care Teams: Supporting Far-Forward Trauma Care on the Future Battlefield

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — Over two decades of conflict in the Middle East, deployed military medical capabilities have made significant advancements in tactical combat casualty care, damage control resuscitation, and damage control surgery. Among these improvements include the austere resuscitative and surgical care (ARSC, pronounced ärsk) teams, whose history extends back to Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 when special operations forces (SOF) identified a need for far-forward surgical teams. The concept of ARSC teams expanded to conventional forces in the 1990s, later proving crucial during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The ARSC can be defined as an “advanced medical capability delivered by small teams with limited resources, often beyond traditional timelines of care, and bridges gaps in roles of care to enable forward military operations and mitigate risk to the force.”01 The recent deployment of these highly skilled teams closer to the front lines has made combat surgical capabilities readily accessible in the most restricted operational environments.

May 1, 2025

Digital Twins for a Digital World: Data-Driven Training Optimizing the Ready Medical Force

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — As the military transitions its focus to large-scale combat operations (LSCO) within the context of the multi-domain doctrinal concept, significant challenges facing the military health system were identified for which there are no immediate solutions.01,02 Alongside this shift in focus, strategic documents and senior military leaders suggest that ubiquitous data collection, robust cyber-secure networks, massive processing power, and scalable artificial intelligence (AI) constitute a technological revolution that is changing the character of war.03 The military health system’s ability to deliver tactical combat casualty care must evolve along with doctrinal and technological changes. The military health system needs to seize the opportunity to rapidly shift its priorities and resources to address these changes. This article helps address the imminent yet unwritten requirement to apply emerging technologies to military medical training.

March 20, 2025

Operators Wanted: SORB Navigating the Recruiting Challenges Facing the Army

FORT BRAGG, NC — The Army is working to overcome recruitment and retention issues at a time when the nation is facing new geopolitical challenges. Those recruitment issues are many and come with consequences, including how the Army’s special operations forces recruit, select, train, and man units with important ongoing overseas missions and commitments. The Special Operations Recruiting Battalion (SORB) is currently assisting the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) with navigating this recruiting challenge. This article discusses the obstacles to recruiting, the SORB mission, and a growing initiative that will benefit the special operations community and the wider Army as we train and fight together to stay ready to protect the nation.