“Warrior Medics” from the Pinellas Park, Florida-based Army Reserve Medical Command joined more than 100 junior and senior medical reserve officers from more than a dozen NATO partner nations for the 2025 Mid-Winter Meeting held by the Confédération Interalliée des Officiers Médicaux de Réserve, also known as the Interallied Confederation of Medical Reserve Officers and by its French acronym CIOMR, at the NATO headquarters here, Jan. 29 through Jan. 31.
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Joy Sanders, the AR-MEDCOM international programs manager, said CIOMR is an international organization NATO’s medical reserve officers to support the NATO multinational alliance.
CIOMR is the medical reserve component of the greater NATO alliance that supports NATO activities, said Sanders.
The AR-MEDCOM Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Michael L. Yost, delivered a keynote address on Jan. 30 to speak of the medical care challenges that junior and senior medical reserve officers may experience in their careers.
“Together, we can ensure that no Soldier is left without the care they need, no matter how challenging the battlefield is,” Yost said.
Sanders, who serves as the chief liaison officer between AR-MEDCOM and CIOMR, said that a prominent focus of the 2025 Mid-Winter Meeting was to inform and discuss how allied nations contribute to the management of medical challenges in large-scale combat operations and large-scale mobilization operations.
“Because we’re in NATO, each country has their own medical capabilities and they bring each one of those capabilities to support the fight as a large-scale combat operation nexus state,” Sanders said.
“Our allies and partners in NATO definitely have medical assets,” she said, “and those capabilities contribute to what the U.S. brings to the fight.”
“Combined with NATO, our expectation is that we work so well together as allies and partners to be able to sustain a large-scale combat operation,” she said.
The CIOMR 2025 Mid-Winter Meeting is preceded by and in concurrence with the Junior Medical Reserve Officer Workshop, synonymously known as the Junior Medical Reserve Officer Seminar, held Jan. 26 through Jan. 31, at both the Holiday Inn Brussels Airport and NATO HQ here.
Finnish Army 1st Lt. Tapio Kalema, the CIOMR national vice president for Finland, said JMROW or JMROS provides rudimentary elements of joint operational activities and procedures.
“Junior medical reserve officers would expect to learn basic officer skills such as briefings, planning and doing exercises and discussing military topics with senior officers,” said Kalema. “The best reason to attend the JMROW or JMROS is to meet the other junior medical officers and being able to work with them.”
British Army Maj. Julian Perdy, a medical officer in the 144th Medical Parachute Squadron of the Royal Army Medical Corps, said his two main takeaways from the CIOMR symposiums are interoperability and resiliency.
“In terms of interoperability, that’s the importance of us being able to collaborate with our partners from different nation states with people that have similar professions but may do things a little bit differently to us, and just looking forward hoping to work in synchronicity with them in future fights,” Perdy said. “In terms of resilience, it’s just the importance of once again just being at any eventuality.”
Air Force Reserve 1st Lt. Andrew François, a clinical nurse with the 349th Medical Squadron (Reserve) out of Travis Air Force Base, California, said in addition to the theme of interoperability, there was a heavy emphasis on diplomacy.
“I think it’s important for us to combine those multinational assets to form this alliance so we can work together, and better understand our situation so we can drive the issue as well as the fight forward,” said François.
“With diplomacy, you have to know which nations you are combining yourself with, so that way you can collaborate and then understand the objectives that are going to be the result of this outcome,” he said.
François said that he strongly encourages all junior and senior medical reserve officers to apply for the CIOMR symposiums for not only their professional development, but in service to their nation and their allies as well.
“You have an opportunity to not only represent yourself for your nation, but the opportunity to expand your horizons so that we can meet those objectives, and those future endeavors that are definitely going to put safety and precedence of our objectives,” François said.
“To our partner nations and the United States, I just want to say, ‘Take advantage of this situation and take advantage of this opportunity.’”
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 through Aug. 1 in Madrid.
