Walter Reed officers and NCOs put future physicians to the test at Bushmaster

By Ricardo J. Reyes

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – The drone overhead is small, but its sound is amplified so the students can’t ignore it. Below it, an ambulance team of fourth-year medical students races toward a casualty collection point. A convoy has just been hit, and the students’ medical skills and leadership are tested at once.

Among those watching, evaluating and pushing them are officers and noncommissioned officers from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. They spent part of October 2026 supporting Operation Bushmaster, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences’ capstone field exercise.

The exercise is the culmination of a four-year military medical curriculum that USU students complete on top of a traditional medical education. Over five days, students rotate through four-hour leadership cycles, managing patients and problems drawn from the realities of modern conflict, including drone threats, prolonged casualty care and ethical dilemmas in austere settings. To graduate, each student must perform in five leadership positions, with faculty evaluating every rotation.

Running the exercise took about 380 faculty and cadre. Half came from USU, Walter Reed and other organizations across the National Capital Region, said U.S. Navy Capt. Sherri Rudinsky chair of USU’s Department of Military and Emergency Medicine.

At least nine Walter Reed staff members from the Army, Navy and Air Force supported this year’s exercise, reflecting the joint makeup of the hospital itself.

The officers

U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Lalah Allen, a medical-surgical nurse on Walter Reed’s 4 East inpatient unit, proctored students in the point-of-injury and casualty collection point lanes. She evaluated how well they applied the fundamentals of tactical combat casualty care, prioritized patient needs and delivered appropriate care.

At the hospital, Allen spends much of her day assessing patients, anticipating their needs and recognizing when something requires immediate attention. She brought those habits to the lanes.

“In a high-stress field environment, even fundamental aspects of patient care can become easy to overlook,” she said. “I was able to reinforce the importance of returning to the basics, maintaining situational awareness and ensuring that patient-centered care remains a priority regardless of the environment.”

Allen said she watched the students’ confidence and teamwork grow as the exercise went on.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Kristin J. Bland, a critical care nurse in Walter Reed’s Medical Intensive Care Unit, evaluated students from the exercise’s tactical operations center, where she served as a logistics officer. She focused on how student leaders handed off information at each turnover. One team stood out, she said, because the incoming leaders took over with a clear picture of the situation and never lost momentum.

“These students will be valued military colleagues, and I would much rather they have the opportunity to make mistakes, learn and improve in a training environment than for the first time in an operational setting,” Bland said.

The NCOs

Rudinsky said putting enlisted leaders in front of students is deliberate.

“We really pride ourselves on incorporating NCO cadre not only as staff behind the scenes making the exercise work, but also as tactical instructors, to help model what that NCO-officer relationship looks like and the unique skillset NCOs bring to accomplish the mission,” she said.

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Karla A. Perez, leading petty officer of Walter Reed’s Pharmacy Department, helped build the test students faced. As a moulage artist, she applied realistic-looking wounds to the first-year students who played casualties. Every injury she created was one the fourth-year students had to find, assess and treat.

Perez said she wants future physicians to see the enlisted members on their teams as more than support.

“One understanding future providers should have is that their corpsmen, medics and technicians are resources to them as well,” she said. “Additionally, they need to be prepared to train their corpsmen, medics and technicians on all aspects of medicine to create a more successful and efficient team.”

She also mentored students away from the casualty lanes. In casual conversations, she talked with them about what to expect from military life, including how a first assignment might affect their families.

“They were receptive and eager to understand the impact it may have on their loved ones when they officially get to their first assignment after school,” she said.

Back at the hospital

Walter Reed’s ties to USU don’t end when the exercise does. The hospital and the university share a campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and their staffs overlap every day. Many USU faculty members also care for patients at Walter Reed, and Walter Reed clinicians help teach USU students, who complete clinical rotations at the hospital. Some of the students tested in the field this fall will soon be working alongside officers and NCOs like the ones who trained them.

Allen hopes to strengthen those ties herself by one day pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at USU.

“The experience gave me a greater appreciation for military medical education and something to look forward to in my own professional journey,” she said.

Perez said Bushmaster showed her the training future providers receive before they reach the field or fleet. It also made her feel she had helped narrow the gap between enlisted members and officers.

“Medicine requires everyone’s efforts and compassion no matter the level of education or training one may have,” she said. “We need to work and train together to achieve medical and military success.”

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