DRAGSVIK, Finland – Just a short drive from the exercise’s front lines, medics pull Finnish soldiers, groaning in pain after becoming simulated casualties of war, from an ambulance and load them onto stretchers. Though this is only training, every U.S. Marine, Sailor, and Finnish service member move with the urgency and intensity of real combat. Working in freezing rain and biting winds, U.S. Navy hospital corpsmen rush to the ambulance as they hear each casualty at the ambulance doors cold and calling out for help. “Help me,” one Finnish service member cries as two corpsmen and two Finnish medics lift him onto the litter and carry him into interconnected medical tents. Inside, the harsh Finnish winter gives way to the low lighting and the ordered chaos of a battle aid station.
A U.S. corpsman and a Finnish medic immediately assess the casualty. After working together through language barriers, differences in patient procedures and knowledge, separate teams that began as strangers to one another started functioning as one team.
This simulated mass casualty exercise was one of many integrated trainings conducted during exercise Freezing Winds 2025. This Finnish-led, 10-day joint interoperability event capped over a month of integrated training in subarctic conditions. U.S. Marines and Sailors from Combat Logistics Battalion 6, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, trained side by side with Finnish Defense Forces medics and soldiers to sharpen cold-weather sustainment and medical capabilities from October through December 2025.
“They knew exactly where patients should be evacuated and how to move them quickly,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Warren Harvey, an emergency medical physician with CLB-6, CLR-2, 2nd MLG.
During the live exercise, the two nations embedded their medics within one another’s treatment areas. Corpsmen were working in Finnish tents, and Finnish medics were working in the U.S. tents, treating patients together. This integrated training allowed for growth and overcoming obstacles such as patient care cards being written in Finnish.
Harvey said, “We found that once we were able to run-through a few repetitions of caring for patients together, that common language of medicine really did shine through, the Finnish medics working with us did a fantastic job.”
Integration with allied medical systems is essential to modern warfighting, explained Harvey when asked about the significance of integrated medical training.
Harvey went on to explain there are a lot of assumptions from those outside the medical community that medical teams will be able to function similarly because we all speak the common language of medicine. Contrary to assumptions, integration isn’t seamless and ironing out a lot of the kinks of what is practical and what are some of the difficulties is why this training is essential.
The Finnish Defense Forces operate on a conscription-based system, with a small active component supported by a large pool of reservists activated during wartime. Because of this system, they work with hospitals during training. Their civilian hospital network is fully integrated into national defense planning, making Finnish Defense Forces’ patient evacuation system efficient, even if their on-site advanced medical capability during peacetime exercises is limited.
CLB-6 provides Role I medical capabilities but often augments its team with personnel from 2nd Medical Battalion, enabling Role I resuscitative care or elements of Role I Plus capabilities depending on the mission. When task-organized forward as a smaller element, it becomes a Damage Control Resuscitation Team providing emergency stabilization closer to the point of injury.
Role I care is the basic care provided by medical personnel near the point of injury that includes immediate life preserving actions and assessments that do not involve surgical intervention or treatment, until the patient can be transferred to a higher echelon of care.
Role I Plus is one step above a Role I medical capability. This status means there is more medical personnel involved in the treatment of care; however, they do not have a surgical staff therefore are not classified as Role II. A Role I Plus team will include 2 emergency physicians, a critical care nurse, an enroute care team, physician assistants, independent duty corpsmen, all in addition to the general corpsman. This amount of medical personnel allows for the team to split into two damage control recusation teams.
Harvey explained, “We extend the ability to hold and stabilize patients until they can be evacuated to a surgical Role II facility.”
Working together starts with creating a mutual understanding of what each force has in terms of equipment and knowledge. The first medical integration training conducted was between U.S. Sailors, German Bundeswehr soldiers, and Finnish Defense Forces. The U.S. displayed their equipment and did a demonstration of procedures and tactical combat casualty care (TCCC) followed by hands on training together.
When asked how the integration will impact readiness, U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Zachery Matthews, an independent duty corpsman with CLB-6, CLR-2, 2nd MLG, said, “I think it will impact it well. It’s the basic mistakes that causes hiccups, and coming out here and going through TCCC will allow us to be more hands off.”
During exercise Freezing Winds there were several NATO Allies and partners who participated. The U.S. and Germany, who have been members of NATO for more than 70 years and Finland who has been a member since 2023.
During a capabilities and equipment demonstration, each country showcased their different medical procedures and how each nation has their medical teams set up. The differences in medical terminology were present, but the basics were the same and the shared language of medicine was able to translate.
“I think the biggest thing is understanding that medical terminology, medicine in general, is pretty universal. A lot of the same materials we use to save lives are the same ones they use,” said Matthews when asked about his experience working with the Finnish and Germans. “It’s always nice to see how everything translates and medicine flows.”
Freezing Winds was conducted to increase interoperability between U.S. Marines, Finland, and NATO Allies by executing combined amphibious operations in and around the Baltic Sea littorals, and is part of a regularly occurring series of exercises in northern Europe that demonstrates the capability to deploy and train U.S. Marines and Sailors in support of the NATO Alliance.
“The key takeaway I took from this iteration, as well as the last iteration two years ago, was that [the Finnish] operate very well in cold conditions between here and Norway. Learning how to operate in the snow and how we treat patients with hypothermia before we get them in the tents and heating them back up, they do a very good job at,” said Matthews.
Exercise Freezing Winds 2025 demonstrated that even when cultures, systems, and procedures differ, a shared purpose and medical understanding bridge the gap. U.S. Navy corpsmen and Finnish medics stand ready, integrated, interoperable, and united by the mission to save lives.