With federal budget cuts driving decisions under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Act, our research program at Brooks AFB was terminated in 1998. With this action, I was provided an opportunity by the US Army to relocate my laboratory to their Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) at Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio, TX). In this capacity, I continued my studies on acute and chronic physiological responses to perhaps the most extreme life-threatening environmental factor associated with reductions in central blood volume—hemorrhage induced by trauma. As such, the focus of my research on cardiovascular control during conditions of central hypovolemia was placed on advancing the emergency medical capabilities of combat medics in the pre-hospital setting of battlefield care. A primary part of this focus was to develop new clinical tools that could allow the medic to recognize that a patient was bleeding well before there was any indication from standard clinical techniques.