Background: The pre-mission training of military medical personnel is based on simulation, using either moulage patients or full-scale simulation manikins. Furthermore, the training is preferably conducted in a realistic environment, including the logistic procedures required. Summary of work: The military approach to medical training has been considered interesting to apply on the postgraduate and continuing education for civilian ambulance nurses. One MD (professor) and one RN (associate professor) are now working part-time for the Armed Forces Centre for Defence Medicine and part-time for the University of Borås. A general aim is to improve the trauma education for civilian ambulance nurses, including prehospital procedures for command & control, and by introducing selected military techniques such as tourniquets and haemostatic agents to stop life-threatening bleedings also in civilian practice. Conclusions: We have a reason to believe that this recently initiated collaboration between military medicine and civilian prehospital medicine is mutually beneficial. The civilian Emergency Medical Services will become better trained and prepared, while the Armed Forces are likely to get a larger recruitment base of skilled medical personnel for future service in international missions. Take-home messages: Collaboration between organisations with similar interests, in this case the prehospital management of trauma victims, is likely to be mutually beneficial.