During the Spring 2020 COVID surge, a team primarily composed of SOF medics coalesces in New York City, rapidly establishes a field hospital within a large academic teaching hospital, then transitions to step-down and ICU care as institutional needs evolve. Empowered to work as RNs, by emergency decree, the SOF medics, remarkable performance supports the need to define a novel role within the civilian healthcare system for these valuable, highly experienced, and underused providers.
