For the last four years, Kelly Coates has boarded a plane every spring to spend two weeks in South Korea. It’s not a vacation. 
The CMC associate vice president for clinical support services and Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve takes part in intense war-games scenario training.
Called Key Resolve, the computer-simulated training exercise rehearses various conflict scenarios between North and South Korea and aims to ensure the defensive security of South Korea. The exercise includes 10,000 South Korean and nearly 9,000 U.S. troops.
Coates has become very familiar with the tense relationship between North and South Korea. After the Korean war ended in 1953, an armistice was signed and an agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North from South, but clashes have continued on and off ever since.
“No one really won the Korean War, so it’s been in a holding pattern for the past 60 years where you have this more aggressive and isolated regime in the north and a more capitalistic and free-thinking democracy in the south,” said Coates. “That’s why we have this exercise every year — to walk through possible scenarios, such as the North launching nuclear missiles and we have to use aggressive force against them, or the regime imploding and a reunification of the north and south.”
During Key Resolve 2015, Coates spent 12-hour days in a command center fulfilling his duty as a POMI officer (plans, operations and medical intelligence officer), which included planning the medical components of the exercises. He compared his role to that of an emergency operations officer, who plans evacuation routes, locates adequate emergency supplies and deals with other logistical necessities during a hurricane.
“For example, a possible scenario we had to deal with was a mass exodus of people from the North coming down to the South during a reunification of the peninsula,” said Coates. “That scenario presented a great public health concern because in the North, immunizations are not as common and outbreaks could occur when the two sides intermingle. My role in that exercise was to figure out the logistics for maneuvering assets around the country to alleviate any outbreaks and find the closest hospitals and clinics that could take care of sick patients.”
Another scenario presented Coates with dozens of soldiers injured in battle.
“Blood is always a big issue in any war-time scenario,” said Coates. “To be able to mobilize enough blood on to the peninsula to support our troops is a big deal and requires interaction with our Army and Air Force counterparts to find sufficient supplies. It’s this cooperation between the services that is really important in this exercise.”
While the scenarios were challenging, Coates already has real-world experience as a medical planner in life or death situations. As an active-duty naval officer during Operation Desert Storm (1990-91), he was deployed to Saudi Arabia where he helped set up and operate a MASH unit (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital).
“It was a fully functioning level-three facility set up in the middle of the sand,” said Coates. “It had 150 beds, 10 ICU beds, four operating rooms and several specialty services that could treat the wounded quickly and efficiently by bringing medical personnel closer to the front lines.”
Coates says he plans to continue going on humanitarian missions, including some right here in the United States. He is looking to help train other Navy reservists in Innovative Readiness Training exercises, which are designed to prepare, train and provide care to medically underserved communities.
He says his experience in South Korea has been great exposure.
“If something does happen over there, I hope to play a role and help the South Korean folks reunify with the North,” said Coates. “That’s been the goal for the last 60 years, to get that whole peninsula working as one. It would be like when the Berlin Wall came down — it would be a momentous historical event.”