FORT GORDON, Ga. (Army News Service, June 27, 2003) -- Hundreds of medics from across the country converged on Fort Gordon June 8-16 for the annual Golden Medic exercise.

Each year the 3rd Medical Command brings more than 1,000 soldiers in 10 Army Reserve units to three locations across the country to conduct the largest medical exercise in the country, said Maj. Alexander Rodger, the officer in charge of the exercise.

The annual exercise also takes place at Fort McCoy, Wis., and Camp Park, Ill., said Rodger.

Weeks of planning ensure the soldiers get excellent experience from the training, said Rodger. The first week is nothing but hands-on and classroom training preparing them for the week to follow in the field.

"Before the scenarios are played out, the casualty exercise half of Golden Medic is utilized," said Rodger. "This portion is used as a means to train medical units and their staffs in conducting the military decision making process," he explained.

"The scenario is supposed to be geared toward southwest Asia," said Sgt. 1st Class Elaine Everett, the exercise noncommissioned officer-in charge.

During the casualty exercise, the part of Golden Medic with the most action, the soldiers set up field hospitals in a wartime operation setting, conduct patient decontamination, force protection, and medical patient and accounting reporting, said Pfc. Gordon Lewis, a medic with the 401st Field Sanitation Team from Fort McCoy.

Although the exercise is U.S. Army Reserve Command's premier medical exercise, the program has been hit hard due to deployments overseas, Rodger said.

"This exercise is running as well as last year's training. Last year we trained how to set up hospitals and did another casualty exercises, while pretending to be in the southwest Asia region. I believed that training helped us for our real-world exercises," said Rodger.

"There were a number of units scheduled to play, but were taken away due to operations down range," said Rodger.

Even though the exercise was condensed due to deployments, soldiers still felt that it went well.

"With all the challenges of current operations it's pretty impressive to pull off an exercise of this scale and caliber with all the degradation we have. Our soldiers are doing an excellent job coping with the losses," said Rodger.

During the after action review one of the most valuable lessons learned for the leaders were learning how to deal with operational security in a third-world country.

"I think we learned some valuable lessons that will save lives due to the intensive training we receive here. Fort Gordon is a wonderful training facility," said Rodger.

(Editor's note: Sgt. Brian Lamar is a journalist with the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade at Fort Gordon, Ga.)