Lessons learned from the war in Afghanistan: a commander's perspective.

A s Surgeon General for the Canadian Forces (CF), I am also the commander of the Canadian Forces Health Services (CFHS), which is responsible for delivering quality health care both in Canada and on deployments around the world. Providing health care in an operational setting is always a challenge, especially when this occurs in a hostile or combat setting with limitations posed by tactical and logistical challenges. This journal supplement will review the lessons learned by the CF medical professionals during the combat engagement in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The CF has not been engaged in such combat intensity and casualty sustainment since the Korean War many decades ago. As such, there was limited combat medicine experience within the CFHS when the CF entered Afghan istan. In a perfect world, there would be very few lessons learned, as everything would have been anticipated and planned for in advance. In reality, this is never the case. So, was the CFHS prepared for this war or did it enter the war prepared to treat the consequences of the last war?