Maj. Erika B. Page, an emergency medicine physician with the Arizona Army National Guard, was named the U.S. Army honoree for the 2026 Hero of Military Medicine Award on May 7 at the Washington National Cathedral. The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, which sponsors the annual award, recognized Page for her medical leadership during combat operations and humanitarian service.
Page deployed to the Middle East in late September 2023 with the 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment, an Arizona Guard unit known as the Bushmasters. Serving as the task force surgeon in support of Operation Spartan Shield, she was responsible for the medical readiness of more than 1,300 personnel spread across 17 locations throughout the region, according to the Arizona National Guard.
36 Hours of Triage After the Tower 22 Attack
On Jan. 28, 2024, a one-way attack drone launched by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed militia coalition, struck Tower 22, a U.S. logistics outpost in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. Three Army Reserve soldiers were killed and dozens more were wounded when the drone hit the outpost’s living quarters.
About 350 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel were stationed at the facility at the time, according to U.S. Central Command. It was the first time U.S. troops had been killed by enemy fire since the start of the war in Gaza.
The three soldiers killed were Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Sgt. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia. All three were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company at Fort Moore, Georgia. National Guard units from Arizona, California, Kentucky and New York made up much of the Tower 22 garrison.
In the hours that followed the explosion, Page organized and directed the medical response while threat conditions persisted at the outpost. Over the next 36 hours, she triaged and treated more than 80 casualties, managing their care and coordinating evacuations to higher echelons of medical support.
“Top priority was always patient care,” Page said. “We had trained for that moment, and in that moment, the only thing that matters is taking care of the patients in front of you.”
Page had run mass casualty training exercises with her unit in the days before the attack. One drill simulated a nighttime scenario with minimal medical staffing, preparation that she said proved invaluable on Jan. 28.
“I think that trust comes from everything leading up to it,” she said. “Being present with the unit, training alongside them and showing them you’re committed to their care.”
Brig. Gen. Matthew Brown, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, wrote that Page “displayed unwavering courage, medical expertise and superior leadership under direct enemy fire” and that her actions “under the most difficult circumstances saved countless lives.”
Page also tracked every casualty and preserved medical documentation that contributed to the processing and awarding of more than 60 Purple Hearts.
From Arizona Trauma Center to Combat Zone
Page commissioned into the Arizona National Guard in 2021, inspired by her husband’s military service. She volunteered for an assignment with the Bushmasters, training alongside them through a combat exercise rotation in 2022 before officially taking over as the battalion surgeon. The deployment to Jordan was her first overseas assignment.
Outside the military, Page works at Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation as a board-certified emergency room physician. The 73-bed facility serves as the primary medical center for the western Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Paiute reservations in northern Arizona.
The hospital holds verification as a Level III Trauma Center from the American College of Surgeons, a distinction it has maintained since 2014. It is the only ACS-verified trauma center on Native land in the lower 48 states.
“To provide care in these communities is an incredible honor,” Page said. “It reflects the commitment to serve others and to deliver care where it’s needed most.”
Following her return from Jordan, Page served in East Africa in a liaison role, helping U.S. embassies across the region develop their crisis response plans. She has since briefed ambassadors and senior military officials on evacuation operations and continues to run mass casualty training across the Arizona Guard.
Lt. Col. Joseph L. Mayeaux wrote that Page accomplished all of this “with fewer than four years of active service” and called her “the very definition of why National Guard medical professionals provide an invaluable service to sustain and protect our combat formations.”
Page described her guiding philosophy as cura personalis, a Latin phrase meaning care for the whole person. “That’s something I try to carry into everything I do,” she said.
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