Burn the Ships – A Call for Decisive Transformation in Military Medical Readiness
BLUF – The authors argue that the Military Health System must abandon the long-standing assumption that routine peacetime healthcare alone can maintain wartime readiness, advocating instead for a fundamental restructuring that embeds military trauma specialists in high-volume civilian trauma centers, designates flagship military trauma hubs, and modernizes the reserve medical workforce to prepare for large-scale combat operations. For Navy Medicine, the article reinforces a growing movement toward measuring success by combat medical readiness rather than beneficiary care alone, emphasizing sustained clinical currency, military-civilian trauma partnerships, and enterprise-wide reforms designed to ensure deployable medical teams are prepared for future peer conflicts.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2026/07/11/burn_the_ships_1193889.html