Buisness insider: The US Army says it's reviving a World War I practice — using soldiers as walking blood banks when helicopters can't fly

https://archive.is/y5ZHS

Edited with extemporaneous commentary for a special someone that enjoys riffs

• A recent US Army exercise looked at life-saving medical care when wounded troops can't be flown out.
• In an intense conflict, getting troops off the field or bringing in supplies could prove extremely difficult.
• The exercise revived the "walking blood bank" concept from World War I, using soldiers.

Instead of preparing their soldiers for fighting a modern war, the U.S army is preparing their soldiers to larp like they're the nazis that got encircled in stalingrad but tell themselves theyre actually aiming for that authentic Verdun vibe.

Western troops may face deadlier fights in future wars. If helicopters can't fly medevac flights, the US Army's fallback for treating the wounded is a World War I approach: using soldiers as "walking blood banks."

Just an FYI: The U.S army basic deployed unit group is the nazi Kampfgruppe inspired-but-they-won't-openly-admit-it Brigade Combat Team. This is a maneuver unit whose force composition is motorized (infantry), mechanized (Stryker IFV) and/or armored (Abrams with Stryker support).

Can you guess why that doesn't really mesh well with the modern warfare we've been seeing out of Ukraine?

During a recent exercise on a German hillside, the Army and its allies and partners simulated enemy artillery fire that resulted in tremendous soldier casualties. Without air superiority for flying evacuations for the injured or bringing in needed supplies, life-saving treatment had to be done right near the fight.

Very appropriate they're in Germany.

Front-line Army medical personnel practiced an old tactic making a comeback, with troops lining up to give blood directly to the wounded right on the battlefield. In this situation, blood transfusions were done with donations from soldiers who were pre-screened and prepared to donate blood on the fly.

So generally speaking ye olde standard issue medikit 'unit one pack' doesn't really have shit that let's you do man-to-man transfusions, but because the Army loves individualism medkits can vary in contents between different units and even just different individuals. So unless the Army gets it's shit together and actually acts like an army by creating standards, this idea of having private Joe dipshit suck-start a plastic straw shoved in this buddy's arm so he won't die of blood loss ain't gonna happen.

The exercise saw US soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and 1st Armored Division Combat Aviation Brigade training to provide prolonged care in the field, a necessity in situations like the Ukraine war, or potential future conflicts, where contested air makes it difficult to move injured troops off the battlefield for trauma care in the critical "golden hour" window.

Yeah, no. Sticking silly straws in your soldiers isn't it, chief.

The US and its allies were able to enjoy that during the conflicts in the Middle East, but that might not be an option in the future.

Interesting how the golden age of western war-fighting was against people who didn't have jets or tanks but only flip-flops and dusty-ass AKs.

And they still lost.

Kemeny said that while the walking blood bank was something done previously, it is still innovative since it had been out of practice.

For good reason, dork

The US Army has been reexamining the role of "walking blood banks" in battle for a few years now. For instance, in 2019, the XVII Airborne Corps and Armed Services Blood Program partnered to identify soldiers with the universal blood type O who could become immediate donors on the battlefield.

Outside of trying to motivate boots to quit purely on the ground they're being turned into literal bloodbags to get slurped dry, the Army's literally one step away from the nazis and how they used captured civilians as bloodbags.

The effort could save lives, especially in remote locations where every second to treat wounded soldiers counts, personnel said at the time.

No seriously, the minimum warcrime mindset that's beaten into american soldiers is "get yourself and your own back home safely, damn everyone else". These fuckers will literally raze entire apartment complexes full of families because some jackass is taking pot-shots at them from it. No shit they're one step away from recreating Vyritsa concentration camp.

There have been other experiments as well. In early 2024, for example, Army medics participating in a large-scale joint exercise in Alaska told Business Insider about the difficulties of treating injuries in cold-weather environments like the Arctic. Blood transfusions in particular were complicated by the low temperatures, leading personnel to experiment with walking blood banks.

See? Training for the Stalingrad but telling themselves it's Tannenberg.

And in Ukraine, a Danish-Ukrainian initiative is mobilizing a "walking blood bank" that taps both civilians and soldiers as donors. The program helps offset severe blood shortages caused by Russia's full-scale invasion, which has driven up demand from mass casualties.

Mass casualties from throwing conscripts into machine gun fire in a live action reenactment of 'enemy at the gates'

For the US and its allies, the return of walking blood banks as a concept is a clear reminder that future conflicts may demand not just new weapons, but also old practices reborn to keep soldiers alive when the skies aren't safe.

Hmmmmm maybe it'd be smarter to teach 'em how to make trenches that you can live in, with shelters and all that a la ww1 style. But hey, let them find out the fun way