ALTA, Norway — Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Zachery Matthews often sleeps with an IV bag close to his chest at night when he’s in a cold place. Corpsmen who work in environments like the Arctic said they keep essential medical fluids near their bodies, using their natural heat to keep them warm. In trauma care, seconds matter and there is no time to wait for liquids to thaw.
On Saturday, Matthews helped lift a Norwegian soldier onto a gurney; another needed intubating. Noise and energy flowed through the medical tent as X-ray machines snapped, surgical instruments clinked and those fluids Matthews often kept close to his chest were passed back and forth between American and Norwegian hands, ice free.
Matthews, along with six other U.S. service members, are part of a U.S. Navy shock trauma platoon — a specialized unit that acts as a mobile emergency room on the battlefield — taking part in NATO‘s massive Nordic Response 2024 exercise. That day, alongside the Norwegian military, they demonstrated what they would do if the unit received several casualties at once in a simulated, but nonetheless serious, exercise.
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