62 FALLS CHURCH, Virginia -- Army Medicine is building partnerships to maintain the world-class trauma and surgical expertise developed during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but is being lost because of reduced practice as U.S. combat injuries decline. History has shown that during periods of relative peace, military medicine's ability to ramp up in the early months of a new trauma-producing conflict is slow. Individual and collective trauma skills degrade without the intense focus of wartime medicine, and the experience gained from combat medicine matures the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities of trauma surgeons. This experience helps save the lives of the Soldiers we are committed to support, said Col. Lance Raney, the current Deputy Medical Corps Chief.