University of Western Ontario faculty members Brian Church, Ray Kao and Vivian McAlister have made almost 15 trips to Afghanistan over the last five years as members of the Canadian Forces Health Services (CFHS). Having performed countless surgeries on injured soldiers and Afghan citizens, you could not blame them for wanting to wash away the physical and mental memories. But out of the pain of war come lessons learned. McAlister, Kao and Church have written scientific papers on their experiences in Afghanistan and been published in the Journal of Trauma and the Canadian Journal of Surgery. “Successful completion of that mission is historic and CF medical officers sat down and documented not only how each section of CF health services organized and delivered care, but also how lessons were learnt and applied,” McAlister says. These include blood transfusion protocols in trauma; critical care including dialysis in austere circumstances; and management systems for mass-casualty incidents.