Army Reserve Soldiers help validate future medical systems at RTS-MED Fort Gordon
FORT GORDON, Ga. — Army Reserve medical Soldiers are helping shape the equipment and procedures future medical formations may use on the battlefield through validation and verification events at Regional Training Site-Medical Fort Gordon.
From Sept. 14-25, 2026, RTS-MED Fort Gordon hosted the Temper Air-Supported Hospital Technical Manual validation and Command Post Deployable Medical Systems Limited User Assessment, bringing together Army Reserve Soldiers, medical testing personnel, equipment developers and subject matter experts to evaluate medical infrastructure under realistic conditions.
The combined event uses RTS-MED shelters and equipment while placing Army Reserve personnel assigned to Role 3 medical organizations in the role of end users. Soldiers set up and tear down medical shelter systems using instructions contained in the draft technical manual, allowing developers and testers to determine whether the instructions, equipment and associated systems meet operational requirements.
“The TAS Hospital Technical Manual and Command Post DEPMEDS Limited User Assessment is allowing for new and emerging medical capabilities to be validated in a realistic operational environment,” said Col. LaTonya Williams, site director for RTS-MED Fort Gordon.
The assessment includes a 32-bed field hospital configuration and evaluates several systems that must operate together. Teal LaRocca, lead support contractor for infrastructure, said the event includes the base shelter system, CP DEPMEDS, a new Class M medical shelter intended to replace legacy ISO containers and the multimodal medical container, or M3C.
“There’s four big programs going on here and representation for them all, and they all again have to interoperate together,” LaRocca said.
A critical part of the validation is putting the equipment and technical manuals into the hands of Soldiers who may ultimately use them. Their experience helps identify unclear instructions and provides developers with recommendations that could make the systems easier to employ.
For Spc. Dexter Dowdy, a behavioral health specialist assigned to the 407th Medical Detachment in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the work has implications beyond the Soldiers participating in the assessment.
“The wording has to last longer than probably most of our careers because these will be deployed everywhere in the future,” Dowdy said. “We’re helping build that and make sure that it can be easily understood by Soldiers of all ranks for years to come.”
Williams said involving Soldiers in the process gives the Army the user perspective needed to identify capability gaps and determine what may need to be modified before wider fielding.
The U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity also participated in the assessment, providing independent and objective testing of the medical capabilities.
Capt. Erik Heitman, a physical therapist and test officer with the organization, said the systems are evaluated against specific criteria to determine whether they address existing capability gaps and meet Soldier requirements. The findings provide information Army decision-makers can consider when determining whether future systems should be fielded.
Heitman, who previously served in the Army Reserve, said the event also gives Reserve Soldiers access to equipment they may not routinely encounter outside annual training.
“What makes this really neat is this provides an opportunity for a reservist to have access to an amazing training site with a lot of capabilities and to devices that they may see in the future,” Heitman said.
The validation also connects Army modernization efforts with the ability of medical formations to mobilize and deploy when needed.
“Here at RTS-MED, we bring Soldiers, equipment and training processes together for a realistic mission-focused medical training environment, which allows units to identify their gaps, which will allow them to deploy and mobilize more rapidly,” Williams said.
By putting emerging equipment and procedures into Soldiers’ hands before wider fielding, the validation provides the Army an opportunity to refine future medical capabilities while preparing Army Reserve medical formations for the systems they may eventually employ.
“When capabilities and lessons are implemented across the medical formation, the units are able to rapidly deploy, establish operations efficiently and sustain itself in a contested environment,” Williams said.
The effort ultimately supports Army Reserve Medicine’s ability to adapt, transform and modernize while maintaining medical formations prepared to mobilize, deploy and sustain lifesaving capabilities when and where they are needed.
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