Fort Bragg hosts first Active Duty Unit Recovery Team training with the use of non-anatomical media | Article

FORT BRAGG, NC- In advanced fight environments, fatality administration specialists step ahead to honor one of the Army’s most sacred guarantees: by no means depart a fallen comrade. 92Ms get better and return fallen service members with unwavering dignity, making certain no Soldier is ever left behind.

Fatality administration specialists from throughout Fort Bragg got here collectively on April 24 and 27, 2026, to conduct the first Active Duty Unit Recovery Team (URT) training utilizing non-anatomical media (NAM), marking a big milestone in US Army fight readiness.

The training introduced collectively 92Ms from XVIII Airborne Corps, the a hundred and first Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the 1st Armored Division. Religious affairs groups from throughout the set up and the forty fourth Medical Brigade had been additionally essential to the collaborative effort to strengthen unit-level capabilities throughout giant scale fight operations (LSCO).

“I’ve been operating in fatality management for almost 20 years,” stated Sgt. 1st Class Delbert Ruede, the fatality administration non-commissioned officer in cost assigned to the third Corps Sustainment Command (CSC). “We know that our ability to bring every Soldier home with dignity depends on how well units are prepared before the worst happens.”

As commanders, the duty for fallen personnel inside their operational space finally stays with them, says Ruede. URT reinforces this obligation by getting ready Soldiers to get better stays from the entrance traces and transfer them safely to the nearest Mortuary Affairs Collection Point (MACP).

Religious affairs specialists, or 56Ms, had been amongst the most important people attending the training to align with the Chaplain Corps’ mission pillars: nurture the dwelling, take care of the wounded and honor the lifeless. Their rising partnership with fatality administration personnel goals to raised put together models to help commanders of their duty to get better and honor fallen service members.

“Training religious affairs personnel in URT is essential to our combat readiness as it incorporates the spiritual and mental resilience that some people overlook when thinking about readiness,” stated Spc. Kacie Stewart, a non secular affairs specialist assigned to the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne), ninety fifth Civil Affairs Brigade, 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne). “Now that we’ve seen what fatality management has to go through, we can help in more ways than one.”

The training started in a classroom setting overlaying primary mortuary affairs fundamentals, together with restoration tools, clearing procedures, loading stays for transport and the phases of restoration operations.

The hands-on portion included casualty identification and notionally securing stays into human stays pouches. The personnel then moved right into a managed setting the place they labored with the 528th Field Hospital’s NAMs.

Stewart stated the training allowed Soldiers to expertise the bodily and psychological challenges of dealing with deceased people, which differ from shifting reside casualties.

The introduction of the NAM’s is a essential element of the training. Ruede says the hands-on repetitions are important to restoration duties, the realism supplied by the use of the NAM’s allowed for Soldiers to raised perceive the bodily realities of dealing with human stays. The publicity included situations equivalent to decomposition, bodily fluids, rigor mortis and different doable situations which may be encountered throughout LSCO.

“The fatality management teams aren’t always going to be available at the front lines, they’ll be in the MACPs,” Ruede stated. “That is why this training matters, exposing Soldiers to realistic conditions in a controlled environment now will build their understanding and skillset that they’ll rely on when it matters.”

Research from Dr. Amy Adler at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research discovered managed publicity to deceased people decreased post-traumatic stress dysfunction signs by greater than 50% in comparison with service members whose first publicity occurred in fight.

Ruede additional explains this discovering is a crucial consider increasing URT training throughout the service. With fewer than 400 active-duty 92Ms in the US Army, the want for Soldiers exterior of the mortuary occupational specialty is essential to help restoration operations.

“These environments prepare Soldiers not just how to react but to lead through one of the hardest moments of combat,” Ruede stated. “Training events such as this one prepares Soldiers for the conditions they will be experiencing long before they face real combat casualties”

This training goals to construct the functionality for each firm to discipline a five-person URT, strengthening help for fatality administration operations all through advanced environments. Preparing non-mortuary Soldiers to conduct dignified restoration operations permits the Army to bolster fight readiness and its dedication to bringing each service member dwelling.

The third CSC plans to develop this training to different occupational specialties in future iterations.

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