Staying Alive

RICHARD C. BARNARD, Editor in Chief

Much of official Washington has a fetish about defense technology. The defense cognoscente here live and breathe for the “the next big thing,” such as a silver bullet innovation to defeat the improvised explosive devices along the roadsides of Iraq (there isn’t one), or the next generation of unmanned craft that will take the military’s use of robotics to a higher level. But the public spotlight rarely shines into the corners of the military labs where fascinating work is under way to save the lives of the men and women in uniform who serve the nation in perilous environments.

Associate Editor Matt Hilburn reports (p. 10) that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are surviving grievous wounds at a rate nearly double that of their World War II and Vietnam counterparts. Some of that gain is attributable to advances in medical technologies, and improvements yet to come promise to drive the survival rates even higher.

For example, the Marines are enthusiastic about the Forward Resuscitative Surgery Suite, an innovation of the Office of Naval Research that brings skilled and technologically advanced surgical capability further forward than ever before. During the initial phases of Operation Iraqi Freedom, every injured Marine that made it to a suite survived. The Marines increased their order for surgery suites by half.

Future Marines might be taken to a “trauma pod,” a surgery room that relies entirely on tele-robotics and is designed to deliver comprehensive diagnostic and surgical capability to practically any locale in the world. The futuristic facility could be available in a decade.

Today’s researchers are finding ways to stanch the massive bleeding that leads to the deaths of many in the current conflicts. The Navy’s Quick Clot, a sand-like mineral powder carried by every Marine and sailor, has saved lives and researchers are developing similar substances that will work without generating the secondary heat that burns the tissue of some patients. Freeze-dried blood platelets and estrogen, the female hormone, also could help U.S. troops survive on battlefields of the future.

Elsewhere in this issue, Special Correspondent Eileen Sullivan covers a dangerous discrepancy involving the nation’s rail transit system (p. 44). Terrorist groups in several locales probably are eyeing U.S. rails as targets, yet the railroads receive relatively little security funding and official attention from government agencies. The result could be a disaster in the making.

These stories, and others in this issue, illustrate why Seapower is the defense magazine that covers the future.

We hope you enjoy it.

We are eager to get your feedback. Contact me at rbarnard@navyleague.org or by mail at Seapower, 2300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201-3308.