121st Field Hospital Earns Walking Blood Bank Validation, Employs Digital Health Records in the Field

The Joint Trauma System validated the 121st Field Hospital “Legends,” part of the 549th Hospital Center and the 65th Medical Brigade “Pacific Medics,” on its battle drill for activating a walking blood bank here during exercise Pacific Medic Forge 26-2 in August 2026.

Serving as the 121st Field Hospital’s external evaluation, the brigade exercise marked the first time the Joint Trauma System validated a Role 3 field hospital under its walking blood bank program, according to the hospital’s after-action review.

Because a hospital in a large-scale conflict can lose both its blood resupply and its network connection at the same time, the 121st Field Hospital trained to overcome both challenges simultaneously. A walking blood bank allows a hospital to collect, screen and transfuse fresh whole blood from pre-screened volunteer donors when stored blood runs short. The hospital’s training roster included laboratory specialists, physicians, physician assistants, nurses and combat medics, along with volunteer donors ranging in rank from private first class to lieutenant colonel.

According to the unit’s after-action review, the validation confirmed the hospital’s ability to safely source, screen and test whole blood from pre-registered volunteer donors during mass casualty surges while establishing a pre-screened donor pool.

“When you volunteer as a donor, you realize the blood supply is standing right next to you in formation,” said Lt. Col. A. Nicole Gonzalez, commander of the 121st Field Hospital, who volunteered as a donor during the training. “Every Soldier we pre-screen is blood we may not be able to get any other way.”

Pacific Medic Forge 26-2 was also the first time a field hospital employed the Joint Operational Medicine Information Systems, or JOMIS, suite in a simulated combat environment, according to the JOMIS program office. Preparation began weeks before the first simulated patient arrived. Beginning July 20, the hospital’s signal Soldiers and the JOMIS program team spent three weeks connecting the system to a tactical network, setting up user accounts, loading exercise patients onto handheld devices and working through challenges ranging from software configuration to severe weather. Training covered five applications, equipping the hospital’s signal Soldiers to administer the systems independently.

The exercise also evaluated how clinical teams operate when connectivity is disrupted. At one point during the evaluation, the team intentionally took the network offline. Clinical staff continued documenting patient care offline, and the digital records automatically transmitted once the connection was restored. “An after-action review only helps the people who read it,” said Maj. Joshua Okoemu, executive officer of the 121st Field Hospital. “Sharing these lessons means the next field hospital does not have to learn them the hard way.”

Blood and data are both lifelines for a modern field hospital. Through Pacific Medic Forge 26-2, the Soldiers of the 121st Field Hospital advanced both capabilities and are sharing those lessons across Army Medicine.

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