Soldiers Support Joint, Multinational Force During Exercise Regional Medic

FORT MCCOY, Wis. - More than 80 U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers from myriad units of the Army Reserve Medical Command came together for Regional Medic 26, held from July 21 to Aug. 9, 2026. The exercise, held in conjunction with Warrior Exercise 26, saw Soldiers organize and perform a real-world medical mission in support of approximately 6,000 service members of the U.S. and NATO partner nations.

Warrior Exercise 26, also called WAREX 26, is a multi-component, multinational joint training exercise that unifies the specialties and functions of a several combat support, combat service support and medical organizations to emulate large-scale combat operational and multi-domain environments.

The AR-MEDCOM composite medical team consisted of the following units:

• The 7458th Medical Operational Readiness Unit; Fort Bragg, North Carolina
• The 7224th Medical Support Unit; North Charleston, South Carolina
• The 7207th Medical Support Unit and 7412th Troop Medical Clinic; Webster, New York
• The 7229th Medical Support Unit; Nashville, Tennessee
• The 7226th Medical Support Unit and 7359th Veterinary Detachment; Fort Jackson, South Carolina

Capt. Adenike Konneh, a family nurse practitioner with the 7229th MSU, said the Soldiers provided unit-level care centrally focused on disease and non-battle injury prevention, or DNBI - alternatively known as role 1 military medical care.

"Our primary mission is to do a role 1 medical clinic and provide medical (support for) the Soldiers that are here," said Konneh. After Soldiers visit the troop medical clinics for injuries, illnesses and other needed medical support they are then able to return to training.

Maj. Bernardo Harris, a health services human resources officer assigned to the 7224th MSU and overall officer in charge of the real-world medical mission said the military medical collective operated one main troop medical clinic on cantonment, with an additional two in separate field-training areas.

"Having three TMCs at different locations helps the training audience because it decreases the timeframe for the Soldier to get the care that they need," Harris said.

If any injuries or illnesses warranted elevation of medical triage and treatment, then coordination would follow with civilian medical assets and facilities adjacent to the installation.

"We understand that there are some injuries that come up to where we have to send them to a higher level of care that we are not able to provide at the TMCs, so we have a local partnership with the local hospitals in Tomah and Sparta that allows us to bring Soldiers out there in a higher level of care that we can't perform here," said Harris.

Konneh said in addition to DNBI, she and her team would instruct troops on proactive and reactive injury prevention.

"We do a lot of education, as well as what you need to do when you're feeling the pain in your knees, when you're feeling the pain in your back, when you're carrying all those loads - make sure that you're resting in between and doing things in between that would prolong the way training would affect whatever you're doing (then)."

Although the real-world medical mission mainly supported the training audience in their WAREX 26 endeavors, it gave newer and inexperienced Soldiers the opportunity to hone their knowledge and skills.

Sgt. Cameron Bernabei, a combat medic with the 7412th TMC, immediately had his real-world military medicine skills put to the test.

"When I got here, my first patient was with a pretty traumatic injury, and I had to snap right into military medicine, and that's something I never had the option to do as a sergeant and a medic," said Bernabei.

He added that the importance of adaptability and education were his biggest takeaways from the experience.

"We came here not knowing we were going to be in tents and not knowing the situation of our TMC where it is in a tent," said Bernabei. "And I think having the ability to adapt to the conditions has taught me a lot about life in general because things change all of the time and you just have to be ready for it."

"I'm also going to take away a lot of the education that I gained while I was here and all the moments I had with providers, and they were coaching me on what to do when I get to PA school and how to be a better student and be a better provider in the future. It's just made me excited to be further in medicine," Bernabei said.

The AR-MEDCOM Soldiers and their role in WAREX 26 and RM 26 exemplifies the Army Reserve's aptitude in rapid mobilization in support of thousands of U.S. service members and joint military members in training environments replicating large-scale operational environments.