During the early stages of Alvin Shell’s recovery, his wounds were bandaged as they healed and as his grafted skin became viable. “Patients with severe battlefield burns are surviving at rates we have never seen before,” says Lt. Col. Evan Renz, the surgeon in charge of the Burn Unit at Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston. “Advances in medical care and rapid evacuation have made a difference. Within hours of his injuries, Capt. Shell was in an operating room at a Level I trauma center, and all of his burns were exsized and grafted. And within three days, he was here at the Burn Center receiving state-of-the-art burn care. That is the key to survival. In the Vietnam era, it would have taken 14 to 18 days.” (Photo courtesy of Alvin Shell)