The commanding general of the Pinellas Park, Florida-based Army Reserve Medical Command, gave a keynote address for an audience at the Confédération Interalliée des Officiers Médicaux de Réserve, also known as the Interallied Confederation of Medical Reserve Officers and by its French acronym CIOMR, during the organization’s Mid-Winter Meeting, Jan. 29, 2025, to Jan. 31, 2025, at the NATO Headquarters here.
The AR-MEDCOM CG said interoperability is a critical aspect of mitigating medical care challenges of the joint reserve military medical spectrum in support of large-scale combat operations and large-scale mobilization operations.
“As we prepare for the challenges of LSCO and LSMO, we must recognize that medical readiness is not a secondary concern,” said Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Michael L. Yost, who took command of AR-MEDCOM in April. “It is a core component of operational success.”
Yost delivered the keynote address on the challenges facing military medical professionals as the U.S. and its allies transform its warfighting posture from counterinsurgency operations to LSCO and LSMO.
“If we are not there and we are not prepared, the battle cannot continue,” the general said.
The Dallas resident also said proactivity in training and mobilizations will ensure synchronicity of capabilities and logistics among NATO partner nations and their respective reserve military medical units.
“By pushing field care forward, enhancing medical capabilities across echelons, ensuring blood access at the point of need, and preparing our medical personnel to deal with the large number of injured and how to triage them,” he said.
“We can save lives and preserve combat power and maintain the trust of the commanders that rely on our teams doing their jobs well,” said Yost.
Yost closed his keynote speech with a message to the U.S. Armed Forces and NATO partner forces in the audience.
“It is with your knowledge, skill and motivation and drive that we will be able to develop new ways to meet the challenges faced in LSCO and LSMO,” said Yost. “May we continue to work together to build a force that is ready, resilient and unwavering in its commitment to excellence.”
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Joy Sanders, the AR-MEDCOM international programs manager who acts as the liaison officer between CIOMR and AR-MEDCOM, said the Mid-Winter Meeting is held in conjunction with the Confédération Interalliée des Officiers de Réserve, or CIOR, to synchronize activities and requirements in support of the NATO partnership of military reserve manpower and operations.
At the JMROW and JMWM 2025, junior and senior medical reserve officers also participated in myriad lectures, workshops and fellowship to engage in collaborative discussions about doctrinal topics and innovations in the military medical reserve spectrum, she said.
British Army Reserve Maj. Kathleen Cooper, a lead coordinator for the Junior Medical Reserve Officer Workshop, and synonymously known as the Junior Medical Reserve Officer Seminar, said that the workshop provides a collective platform for junior medical reserve officers from their respective NATO countries.
“It ties into the CIOMR Mid-Winter Meeting by providing an opportunity for junior medical reserve officers to come together and collaborate on different presentations with relevant topics determined by the CIOMR agenda and also include some leadership development, we do some wargaming, we get them to do lots of teamwork and develop
presentations,” said Cooper.
“All in all, it’s about working with different nations that you might have not come across before, and that’s the purpose of CIOMR,” the British Army officer said.
Army Reserve Capt. Alicia Burns, a physician assistant with the Mesa, Arizona-based 7453rd Medical Operational Readiness Unit, said the NATO programs are advantageous to the initiation and sustainment of professional networks.
“This is really a once-in-a-career opportunity for me or for other junior medical officers to come here and be a part of an organization with so many of our other NATO partners and just learn that interoperability piece that most of us don’t get the opportunity to do,” Burns said. “That will probably be the biggest takeaway that I have is learning from them and also them learning from us because we do have a lot to share both as medical and military officers.”
Sanders said Army Reserve medical Soldiers should apply to future CIOMR symposiums for the conducive growth of their professional development.
“Soldiers have the opportunity to be able to expand their military and their professional careers by attending something like CIOMR; specifically, the [JMROW] is a wonderful opportunity for them to come and learn about NATO,” she said.
“Our allies and partners, their medical capabilities and share with them the medical capabilities that the U.S. Army specifically has to be able to share with them what it is we do and how well we can work together,” Sanders said.
“It’s an eye-opening opportunity and it’s an opportunity also to be able to develop the relationship and the understanding that when we do go to war, we’re going to effectively work so well together as it is expected and as it is required.”
The CIOMR, in tandem with the CIOR Military Competition, or CIOR MILCOMP, will host another symposium this year at the Summer Congress currently slated for July 28, 2025, to Aug. 1, 2025, in Madrid.
