Hey everyone. Happy Saturday! Unfortunately, I’m very under the weather today. If you watched yesterday’s show, you could probably tell I was coming down with something pretty nasty. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do a video for today’s AMA - I just can’t talk. However, rather than push this to next week, I wanted to get you answers in writing so we keep up our end of the bargain. Thank you for understanding.
Here we go!
From Shawn: What was the most unexpected thing that you learned or experienced during your recent trip to Ukraine?
Honestly, it was the medical side of things. I went in expecting to be super impressed by the drone warfare, and I was, but nothing prepared me for what I learned about casualty care on parts of that front.
In the American military, we live by the golden hour: if you’re wounded, we move heaven and earth to get you stabilized and to a hospital in under sixty minutes. In Ukraine, a wounded soldier in certain positions might have to hold on for a month before evacuation is even possible.
So they’ve adapted in ways I never would have guessed. Drones fly out to wounded troops carrying medicine and supplies. Doctors walk soldiers through their own care over video calls. Unmanned ground vehicles drive in under fire to pull the wounded out so a rescue doesn’t turn into more casualties.
The physical toll of a month like that is obvious. The mental toll is almost unimaginable, and they endure it and because they have to, all thanks to Vladimir Putin and Russia.