What It All Means To Me

My bags are packed and I am ready to roll. I am at Fort Bennings, Georgia. I hope to catch a flight tonight back home. It has been a rewarding and satisfying tour. I am one of the lucky ones, because my tour was only 3 months in theater. Our regular hospital people are spending 15 months.

My trip back started last Friday at 2100. We had to go through customs and dump out our 3 duffel bags completely and make sure we aren’t bringing back any illegal articles. We stayed in lock down until about 5 PM the on Saturday where we started our process for going to the airport. We stopped at Liepich, Germany for 2 hour layover. It was cold there. It was in the 90’s when we left Kuwait. I could see my breath when we stepped off the plane in Germany. It might be a cold, very cold winter for me after the 120 degree days.

For the most part, my deployment was better than I expected. I was fortunate to have been stationed in Mosul. We had a small, tight group. The other providers were great to work with. I would gladly repeat a tour with this group anytime. If I was in Bagdad, there would have been a lot of politics and policies. Yes, even in a war zone that stuff exists. There is way too much brass there all trying to do something to leave their mark. I guess I would never make it in politics.
I experienced every emotion possible. I had enjoyable times and a lot of laughs. I also fought back tears when I stood at attention for the Angel Flights. Unfortunately, that was more than once. I experienced anguish when I had to do an amputation. I also had great joy when I saw one of my patients in the news, knowing I did something to help him. I learned a lot about Iraq. I talked with one of the sergeants whose brigade killed Hussein’s 2 sons in Mosul back in 2003. It took a lot longer than the press showed. I saw soldiers laugh. I saw soldiers cry. The high point of my trip was to see my son grown up, leading and training fellow troops. He makes me proud to be his father and to be an American.

I also feel that I accomplished some of my goals. I joined the Army because I wanted to help our troops and also help our country fight against terrorism. I am too old to be an infantry man like my son, but I have specialized skills to offer. I have mixed feelings about the intensity of what I did. At first I felt like I could do a lot more. I saw a lot of combat wounds and learned a lot about their specialized care. I thought that I should have been a lot busier, but for me to be busier would have meant a lot more suffering and injuries to our troops. I definitely did not want to see that. They did need a lot of non-surgical orthopedic care. They did need an Orthopedists to evaluate them and treat their knee or shoulder or back injuries. They had a lot of injuries like I see everyday in my practice back home. So I feel that I did contribute to helping these soldiers even though it wasn’t a lot of battle wounds.

I leave with mixed emotions. I am ready to go home. It has been long time. I am anxious to see my family and friends. I also feel a little guilty. I see the other soldiers having to spend 6 or 12 or even 15 months compared to my 3. I feel like I should spend more time in Iraq. I also have commitments back home that I also need to take care of.

This will be my last entry into my blog since my deployment is complete. I want to say thanks to everyone who had supported me. I received many care packages and emails. I know it was a lot harder on people whom I left at home than it was for me.

I want to end this with a special note. This is something I learned in my basic training. It is called the Soldier’s Creed.

“ I am an American Soldier
I am a Warrior and a member of a team
I serve the people of the United States and live the Army value
I will always place the mission first
I will never accept defeat
I will never quit
I will never leave a fallen comrade
I am an American Soldier”

I am proud to be an American and an American Soldier.


Tom

What My Son Has Taught Me

I had a wonderful experience that a lot of times parents don’t often get to see of their children. I visited Mike and saw in action as a responsible, mature adult. Yes, I am talking about my son who was often wild and living on the edge as a child. Now he is responsible for the lives of men underneath him. He is a corporal in the Marines. He is a NCO (Non Commissioned Officer), so basically in charge of a lot of things. He still has a sergeant above him as well as other officers like colonels and generals. So when he is on a convoy, he has a commander, but when they dismount, he directs the troops on the ground. It was quite amazing to me, to see all the other troops come up to him to ask for permission or directions. On the ground he would direct their formations and give them orders to carry out. He would train them and drill them with other corporals. He is responsible for their lives outside the wire. I was truly proud as a father to watch him in action. The funny part is when we were back at the sleeping quarters or cans as they call them, he was like his old self, just joking or playing around. His men respected him or at least feared him enough that he only had to give the orders once and they carried it out.

This is a picture of Mike and myself after we arrived at an outlying FOB for target practice.We came in the MRAP behind us.
These are some of the vehicles than formed our convoy. As big as they are there is not a lot of room in them

I had an interesting time getting to visit him. I had some difficulty arranging a flight to his place. We had no direct flights from Mosul to Al Asad. So I had to travel to Balad, another air force base, and there try to get a flight to Al Asad. It was almost like me just hitch hiking a ride on the airplanes. I got to know the medic for the SF guys, so I was able to hitch a ride with them as they were flying to Balad. We take off and about an hour later we land but we don’t get off the plane. After about 20 minutes on the runway (remember, this is a military plane where we get on and off at the back of the plane with all the cargo), I talk to one of the SF guys who told me once in a while, they stop at Tikrit or Al Asad and pick up things. Al Asad!! Wait a minute. That is where I am ultimately trying to go to. So I talk to the flight crew and sure enough, we were at Al Asad. Here I was sitting on their runway for 20 minutes not knowing that this is the place I ultimately wanted to go to. So I asked the pilot and they let me get off just before they close the door. Fortunately, Al Asad has a bus system that goes 24 hrs a day. It was about 12:30 AM, I was able to catch a bus with all my gear and go to his camp. I knock on his door at 1 AM which was quite a surprise to him. I was able to spend about 3 days with him.

The guys in his MRAP, includes a gunner, dismount, driver, VC (Vehicle Commmander,ie Mike) and medic (not pictured)

I had a exciting time with him and learned a hell of a lot of how the other side lives. It is a world of differences between being an officer and an enlisted man in the military. He was able to give me a sampling of what his everyday in Iraq is like. One day I went shooting with him. We had to travel outside the wire. I rode in his MRAP which replaces most of the humvees now. We did about an hour drive on the roads of Iraq. Outside the wire you travel with your weapon loaded including a bullet in the chamber, but with the safety on. You are given a briefing before we leave in case we have to dismount and return fire. For the most part I was pretty safe. We will just ignore the fact that an IED blast occurred on the same road we traveled just the day before. The thing that made me the proudest of our troops is that this was one day in my life, with my adrenalin flowing pretty hard while outside the wire. These Marines do this almost everyday, day in and day out, without batting an eye. They are fully aware of the danger. They do this for us so we can live in peace at home. I was honored to be in their presence. That is why is hurts me deeply whenever I see any of them injured. Those guys are truly heroes to me.
).Mike doing tricks with the grenade launcher portion of his M4.Mike and a fellow corporal kicking the pigskin during some of their down time.


Oh by the way, I had a great time shooting with them. I shot the pistol (M9) and the M4 (similar to the M16 just a slightly shorter barrel and stock). We also did a night shoot using the night vision goggles. Those are so neat. You can see quite a bit at night with those. (Nancy, they would make a great Christmas present). Mike by the way got range high on the combine pistol and rifle shoot.
.This is the practice target range where we spent the day. It was a long day. We were up at 0430 and didn't return until 2300. It was a fun day however.

Well, I am on my way to Kuwait. I hope to be home in about a week.

Tom

It Is Hard To Let Go

This is most of the OR staff. These are the nurses and scrub techs who are assigned to the unit. Most of them are on a 15 month tour. They are scheduled to go home early Jan after their second set in a row of spending the holidays in Iraq.



This is most of the other doctors who I work with. All the other providers are full time active staff. They do a 6 month rotation.

These 2 are my closest friends. CAP Tom Chenowith and CAP Peter Brandrup, both from anesthesia. They came here a few weeks after I was here. They are here for 6 months. They are so close, you almost need a crowbar to separate them. We have spent a lot of time together. In the early morning I would make coffee since I had a great supply from Starbucks. Both of them would come into my CHU for 20-30 minutes before the day started. We would have coffee and talk or tell jokes. I really looked forward to that every morning. I will miss these 2 great friends the most.




Well, it is official. My replacement is here, although he had a tough time getting here. I had a few scares that I might be here a bit longer than originally planned, but it looks like we are back on track. When he arrived at Kuwait, the bus that picked up the group got into an accident. The lead bus stopped, but the second bus did not. Fortunately, he received just some bumps and bruises, nothing serious. For a while there, we didn’t know who was coming or when. Eventually, he got here a bit late, but better late than never.

I really have mixed emotions about leaving. Don’t get me wrong, I am ready to leave. You get a little tired of always running to the bunker when the C-RAM (our PA system) goes off. In fact, just last night, it went off during the middle of the night. I was in a deep sleep (which doesn’t happen that often) and when it went off yelling “Bunker, Bunker, Incoming, Incoming”, I reached over and tried to turn off my clock radio which I thought was going off. When I finally realized that I don’t have a clock radio and realized what it was, I threw on some pants and went out to the bunker. By that time the “All Clear” sounded, so I went back to bed. Of course then your adrenalin is flowing and it takes a while to go back to sleep. In the past 3 months that I have been here, we only had 2 mortars that actually hit the base. One hit the airfield, they aren’t real good shots. The other hit one of the T-walls and sprayed the area where the ambulances are parked. The back of 2 of the ambulances look like somebody shot them with a machine gun, but a little bondo and they were back in action.

Anyhow, back to mixed emotions. When you are here for a while and you are the only Orthopod in this area, I feel personally responsible for the care of these soldiers. I really feel like these kids are part of my own family for the sacrifice that they are doing. I go to the EMT whenever there are any injuries, whether they are orthopedic or not, just see if there is anything I can help them with. When you do that for awhile, it becomes engraved into you and it is hard to let go. When my replacement came, I held onto the pager. He had a tough time getting here. He didn’t get much sleep for a couple of days. I know he was new to all this, just like I was 3 months ago. I didn’t want to just dump all this onto him and say “Adios, good luck”. So after the 2nd day, he was getting broken in, he half jokingly said to me that he was wondering if I had separation anxiety. I guess I did. I was hesitant to let go. I didn’t want to acknowledge that my job here was done. My replacement is here, I can go now. I am not really needed anymore. After 3 months of always wondering when they call, how bad is it going to be. Hopefully, it will only be superficial wounds. Hopefully, no more Angel Flights. Now, after 3 months of riding that emotional roller coaster, all of a sudden, it is over. So I showed him the pager, showed him how to clear old messages, and gave him the pager. It is his turn now.

He seems like a good guy. His name is Dr. Magdiel Mayol, from Puerto Rico. I feel comfortable now leaving the orthopedic care in his hands. Ironically, I guess I timed giving him the pager at the right time. I told him the battery was low. So he had it for a while, the pager went dead and they couldn’t get a hold of him this morning. They know where I live, so they knocked on my door. They needed me for one more case. It was the EMT with just a little finger injury. So I took care of it. Now I am really done.

I am working on trying to see my son, Mike. He is out in Al Asad. It is not like I can go buy a ticket from United and show up at the airport. I have been working with our headquarters. One time there is a flight, then next time it is cancelled. It is sort of like standby. They call it Space A (space available). Mike is a marine out there. He will be moving to another base soon. So I hope to see him before I leave or he moves.
One of my first blogs that I wrote after I arrived here included this sign. Now on one of my last blogs before I leave I thought I would include it again, only a little different. They gave me an award. Someone must of liked what I was doing out here so they gave me a medal. It is the Army Commendation Medal. I think they liked that I stepped it up a bit and was always there when they needed me. I am just grateful that the medal wasn’t a Purple Heart.


Well, I am scheduled for the Freedom Flight on Oct 25th out of Kuwait. I should be back at Fort Bennings, Georgia then hopefully home by the 31st. I don’t think I will dress up as an Army man for Halloween this year.

Tom

New Hats

The other day we got new hats in the OR. One of the anesthetists has someone from his home town who regularly makes hat. I think this is a part time job for her. So she made a group of hats and sent them over here for us to wear in the OR. It sure beats the old paper throw away ones that we normally wear. Now we are colorful. Some of the hats are styled for Halloween, so these are just in time. In the picture, I am with some anesthesiologist, doctors and nurses from the OR. I don’t know if you can see the detail, but I picked the hat with little skeletons on it.

Speaking of Halloween, the kids (most of these soldiers are still kids to me) are really gearing up for this. Quite a few of them have ordered costumes. The command is going to release when they can wear them here at the CSH. That is an advantage for them being here working medical and being at one place at the time. The troops going outside the wire don’t get to wear costumes. Second thought, it might be pretty neat having Frankenstein kick in your door and point a M16 at you. I wonder if the insurgents would think it was neat.

Now for some more good news, sort of. They like me over here. I am just doing my job. I make myself available anytime, night or day ( It is not like I don't have the time or anywhere else to go). Apparently, in the past they have had some Orthopods who have not been so nice to work with. So the command told me I am doing a good job and that was very nice of them. In fact, I was doing so well that they have expanded my area of coverage. My area of coverage just grew about 100 miles. They tell me my schedule may change, but I am not sure what that means. I guess we will see.

Oh by the way, the news on the internet mentioned about Iraqi's civilian and kids getting killed in Mosul last weekend. That was the incident that kept me up most of the night. They didn't mention our soldier getting killed. They also didn't mention that that the insurgents were picking up the kids and using them as shields when our boys were fighting back. Our guys didn't kill any of the kids. One of the insurgents detonated a suicide vest and that's what got the kids. Funny how the news didn't quite pick up on that either.

Tom

The Angel Flight

I participated in my first Angel Flight the other day. I really prefer not to be involved with another one. It is hard not to cry in public. The Angel Flight is the name of the flight to take one of our fallen heroes home. A few nights ago, some of our Special Forces guys were on a mission. They took casualties. 3 of them had wounds which needed attention and surgery. Basically, they will eventually heal up and do alright. Unfortunately, one of their buddies was badly hurt. He essentially came in already expired, but we worked on him doing whatever we could, but to no avail. Usually, within 24 hrs if the weather permits, the body is flown out to the home base. They bring the body out in its’ temporary casket, with a flag draped over it. All the troops form a line on each side of the path leading from the ambulance to the plane. The casket is carried by the members of his platoon from the ambulance to the back of the plane with every soldier in full salute. Once it is in the plane the unit, one by one boards the plane to say their good-byes. Some of the docs were there because the other 3 wounded guys wanted to say their good-byes, so we escorted them out. We brought them out in another ambulance and rolled them in their wheelchairs to the line. One guy held his shot up arm in the salute position for the whole procession. I don’t know how he did it, but he wasn’t about to put his arm down until the order was given. Less than 24 hrs earlier, we took an AK 47 round out of that arm. That unit is scheduled to go home in a week. I know it hit everyone pretty hard, including me.

Things have definitely gotten busier. I hear reports that Mosul has become one of the last strong holds of the insurgents, so the Army is stepping up things to clean it up. Unfortunately, that will probably keep us busy.

More attacks have been aimed at the Iraqis and less to the Americans. The Iraqis are softer, easier targets. Also, when they hit American targets, we tend to more often finish completely what the insurgents started. The Iraqis have improved, but don’t always finish the job.

Hopefully home in a few weeks.

Tom

Build Me An Ark

We had an interesting briefing the other morning. I have heard about a big dam just north of Mosul. I think it comes off one of the tributaries of the Tigris River, which is about a mile or two east of here. Well, I have heard that the dam is not the most reliable structure. Apparently, when it was built many, many moons ago, they used gypsum at it base. They say that gypsum is not the most reliable substance for the dam. So the Army Corp of Engineers are working on shoreing it up somehow. Our base is downstream from that dam. The CSH is on the low side of the base. The other side, the Marez side, is higher up. The Corp of Engineers have moved their headquarters to one of the highest areas on the Marez side. If the dam breaks, they tell us we have about an hour before our hospital is 20 feet under water. That would make this place look like New Orleans after Katrina. So we practiced drills today, moving patients out and evacuating. The Corp tells us that the dam is fine and they are just taking precautionary measures to restore it. I am still a little puzzled that if we are fine, then why did they move their office to higher ground? Maybe I should request an ark for my next care package just in case.

We get a security briefing once a week. I can’t tell you much because then I would have to kill all of you. But, they did show some interesting photos. It wasn’t the good stuff like you see in People or US magazines. It was photos of bad guys smuggling things in from the border by horseback. These guys are not dumb. Apparently, the main roads are fairly well covered, so they are resorting to whatever means are available. The good thing is that there is only so much you can sneak in on horseback. But still, you can sneak in enough to still do some damage. So it does show that the enemy is getting a bit desperate. It also shows that we definitely can’t trust the neighboring countries where they harbor the insurgents.

I decided it is time for me to brag a little. Twice year we have to take a PFT (Physical Fitness Test). Even though we are in a combat zone, we still have to follow regulations. Part of the test is to run 2 miles under a certain time, standardized for your age. There is this one young medic, 22y/o, who is a bit impressed with himself. So he was shooting off his mouth just before the run. Most of these kids don’t know how to pace themselves. So he takes off like a bat out of hell and he is way out in front at the 1 mile marker, which is the turnaround point. One of the other docs, Rob (ER doc, younger, 38 y/o, active runner) and I decide to show him a lesson. So during the second mile, we close the gap and soon, Rob passes him. This was ok because Rob is known to be an active runner. About 10 or 15 seconds later, I catch up to him and pass him. At the finish line, I was about 30 seconds ahead of him, and Rob was about a minute ahead of him. Of course, back in the EMT, everyone was riding him to no end, telling him how 2 old guys beat him. I believe he could have beaten me if he would learn to pace himself and maybe practice running a little bit once in a while. He wants a rematch but I told him it would have to be within the next 2 weeks. After that, I hope to be flying out to visit Mike.

The picture is from the helicopter group. They are called “Dustoffs”. They are named after one of their pilots who had previously flown many missions, picking up wounded soldiers from areas no other pilots could reach. I think this was Viet Nam, but I am not exactly sure.

Tom

Dusty

It is amazing the dust storms here. I mentioned last time that sometimes the dust is thick enough, it is like a fog. I did a picture looking at some houses across the airfield. Some days you can see the houses and other days you can’t. I don’t recommend this place for people who have breathing problems. In fact, I don’t think I recommend this place even if you don’t have breathing problems.

I am including a copy of a letter I wrote to my sister-in-laws 6th grade class. They were kind enough to send me a group of letters that they wrote to me. I passed them around to some of the other medical staff. I think it sums things up pretty well.

“Dear 6th Grade Class, September 23, 2008
Thank you for your wonderful letters. Believe it or not, they were an inspiration for me. Just knowing that people back home care about our soldiers really mean a lot. Even little things like just sending a letter or saying “Thank You” means a great deal. All that a soldier want is knowing that people back in the states appreciate the sacrifice that the soldier is making. He wants to know that he is not forgotten. He wants to know that his hard work, his sweat and at times, his tears are not for nothing. Over here, the American soldier does make a difference. They help give the Iraqi people a chance for freedom, something that we as Americans at times take for granted. They also are fighting against terrorism, the same type that attacked our nation on September 11, 2001.

I don’t know how much Mrs. Baier has told you about me. I joined the Army a little over a year ago. I was inspired a great deal by my son, Michael, who joined the Marines about 2 years ago. When I saw what he was doing for our country, I decided that I could help our country as well. I am too old to be an active Infantry man, like my son. I am probably close to some of your grandparents’ ages. God has been very good to me and gave me other skills to help our country. He gave me skills to be a doctor, so I decided to use those skills to help out troops. Unfortunately, in war soldiers do get hurt and I can help them recover. I love these soldiers over here. Each day they go outside the wire, that is, outside of the base where it is safe. They face danger everyday of being injured by the terrorist. They do this for us, so we can have a safe place at home, free of terrorism. The reason I joined the Army was to be able to help these wonderful soldiers of our nation.

It is not too bad over here now. When I first came over here, our plane refueled in Ireland, then onto Kuwait. I spent a few days doing more training in Kuwait. Then we flew to Iraq. I am now stationed in Mosul, which is way up north in Iraq. Iraq is approximately the size of the state of Texas. Bagdad is the capital and I am a few hundred miles north of it. We have bases all over the country. When I first got here, the temperature averaged about 115-120 degrees. It took a while, but I got used to it. Now the fall is here and the temp goes around 95 -100. At night time it cools off to about 80 degrees. This place is truly a city in the middle of a desert. All water is piped or shipped in. The only water we drink is bottle water. The water in the sinks are not safe to drink. We can, however, take showers in it as long as we don’t drink it. I drink about 4-5 liters of water a day, just to stay hydrated. It is very easy to get dehydrated over here, then you need IVs or else you will get very sick.

We have had almost no rain since April. There are a few trees and I don’t know how they stay alive with almost no rain. I am told they have a very deep root system that must supply them with nutrients. I work pretty much in the hospital here, called a CSH (Combat Support Hospital). Because of all the dust here, there is a high infection rate. We basically stabilize the wounded soldier, meaning we clean out their wounds, give them blood if needed, IVs and medication. Then after a day or two, the wounded are flown to Germany for further care. We have very little TV programs, so most troops in their free time watch a lot of DVDs. I don’t have a car here so we do a lot of walking.

I finish up with my tour about the end of October.

Your letters made me smile and I thank you for them. “

Tom

Army Patch

Well, it is official. I received my arm patch. In the military, there is a tradition of after you have been in a combat zone for over 30 days you get a patch for your arm. They had a little ceremony at the CSH to give a group of us our patches. So it is official. I have been in a combat zone for over 30 days. We wear the flag backwards on our right shoulder. That is because we always have the stars facing forward, or leading us. I have about 30 days or so left. This last month time has gone by quickly, so I think I will be home in no time.

Ramadan should over in a few more days. They definitely made us busier, but fortunately, not that much of the really big traumas, mainly the smaller stuff. Part of that could be related to how much the equipment has changed. I am seeing more protective things around the vehicles, like this big wire fence looking thing. The idea behind it is that the grenades get tied up in the fence and detonate outside the vehicle instead of ON the vehicle which helps keep the injuries down. They also have more reinforced vehicles, even since I have been here.


They have a vehicle called MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protection). It has steel reinforced armor and the inside is has a separate carriage that blows away from the frame so not as much impact hits the soldiers inside. We have had a few head injuries when they don’t wear their Kevlars inside, but not nearly the bodily injuries we see from unprotected vehicles.


The weather is still quite dry. Some days you can see for a distance. Other days the dust is so thick, it is like fog. I hear they are predicting rain next week and even night time temps below 70. At least that will help with the dust.

Tom

Thank You USO

We had a real treat last night. I don’t know if it was an all-of-a-sudden deal or planned out. We only had a few days notice. The USO sponsored a concert for all the country loving troops. It was Trace Adkins who performed. I usually listen to a mixture of regular rock and roll, oldies and country. I really enjoyed the concert. It was outside. The temp finally cooled down to about 85-90 range. He has a new album coming out in November, so he played a few songs from it and they were great. Last year he won an award from USO for supporting our troops for the song “ Arlington”. He said when he recorded it, the critics gave him quite a bad write up, but he didn’t care. He wrote it for the troops. I don’t know if he was just saying that or not. I don’t see a lot of performers doing what he is doing, coming over to Iraq to give the troops a free concert in a war zone. When he played that song last PM, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Actually, the ovation was more for the fallen troops who are already at Arlington Cemetery. He acknowledged that fact. It is quite an emotional song if you are not familiar with it.

At the concert I ran into a lot of different people. A lot of the enlisted men and women were there. It was very interesting talking to them and learning of their experiences. They were quite friendly and gave me a tour of their vehicles. I was able to see the insides of an Abram tank, a Bradley, a Stryker and an MRAP. It is unbelievable how dedicated these guys are. All of them go outside the wire every day. Sometimes their mission takes them out for 2 or 3 days. Every day they go out there knowing someone is trying to shoot them or throw grenades at them or just blow them up just because they are Americans. No one complained to me either about how bad they have it. They just suck it up and say that is what they are trained to do. As I have said before, these guys are the true heroes. They do it for us without question and do it for the love of their country. It was really inspiring to talk to them and I thanked them for what they are doing. They got it a hundred times worst than me.



The tour of the tank was neat. The Sergeant showed me inside. For as big as it is, there is not a lot of room in it. The main barrow is 120mm. He pulled out one of the shells, and they are huge. It is like holding a kid. The shell is at least 2 feet long and the diameter is 5-6 inches. I bet it weighs 40 -50 lbs. The optics are amazing as well. You can see distance at night with no problem at all. I would rather have one on my side than take one on.

Take care, less than 5 weeks to go

Tom

I Found Area 51

I couldn’t believe it, but I discovered Area 51. It’s in the tabloids. Remember the movie “Independence Day” a few years ago. Area 51 was the secret hiding place of the government where they hid the aliens and spacemen from outer space and did experiments on them and studied them. It was out in Nevada or somewhere. Anyhow, I walk by this place every day and just yesterday someone pointed it out to me that we are in Area 51. After further investigation, I discovered it was our own doctor’s hut as it is called. This hut is where we have some medical books, computer and a small refrigerator for our NA beer. It is located at the beginning of Scapel Lane, just before our row of CHU’s . So I guess I am part of Area 51. I am not sure if I am from outer space or a failed experiment. I admit, I am part of a government coverup. If I start talking funny, I guess that you will know why.


I have added a link on my blog site to another blog if anyone is interested. I am not the only one here with a blog site. His name is Dr. Peter Brandup. He is an Anesthesiologist from El Peso, Texas. He is full time active duty. The active guys are here for 6 months, not like the short term hitters like me. He is a nice guy, a bit strange, but a nice guy. We actually get along very well. He is a Giants fan, but I won’t hold that against him, until the Giants play the Bears. He offers some views and stories that are different than mine. My blog site, however, is better.

Those scorpions were nothing. The other day a soldier brought in a poisonous snake. They were on Marez side, the other side of the FOB. They were doing some digging, over turned a big rock, and there was a desert viper of some sort. Iraq does not have any garter snakes here. All snakes here are poisonous. Some of the guys just freaked out. One of the sergeants took a shovel and smashed its head. They brought it into the clinic. It is not too big, maybe 2 feet or so. It is in formaldehyde, but I won’t show any pictures of it.

I am a little late putting out this blog. I was up late last night putting some bad guy back together again. Maybe we should adopt the Aussie’s philosophy. When their soldiers fire their weapons, and the bad guys are only wounded, their sergeants take the soldiers out for more training. I could use the sleep at night. Only kidding. Ramadan has definitely increased my work load. Can’t wait until it is over. I think another week and a half or so.

Tom

Some Good News

We had a general surgeon come talk to us from Bagdad. He is a trauma surgeon, actually from the Navy. He reported that all over the country, the amount of trauma is down from a year ago. So not just here, but other places, like Tikrit, Al Asad, and even Bagdad are slower than a year ago. So it is good that it is slower all over and not just here. The success is from a lot of things. The Surge was a factor. Probably more important is that they turned loose the SF guys (Special Forces). They go in on their own missions. They get pretty reliable intell and essentially do their missions behind the scenes. I met a few of them and they are hard core. They think nothing about going outside the wire to do their thing. In fact a lot of them prefer to be outside the wire shooting bad guys, than inside here. I kind of like it inside here, thank you very much.

Regardless of who wins in November, we will be seeing changes. As many of you know, they recently signed an agreement to switch over the control of the Anbar Providence to the Iraqis. So far, nothing has changed out there yet. Eventually, the Army and Marines will down size, but what that means who knows. Medically, I hear they are slower than we are.

It is almost WINTER here. I have been here in theater for 55 days now. The other day was the first day the temp did not hit 3 digits. It was a beautiful day. It was mid 90’s . Just like spring. I never thought that I would ever consider mid 90’s to be spring like, but it sure beats 115’. Also, today was the first day it even rained. It lasted about 3 minutes just enough to get the dirt wet so it was like walking in mud. After an hour, it was all dry again. I am told that about October, it starts raining regularly and everything just turns to mud. That will make it interesting, going from dust to mud. If the temp drops much further, I will have to pull out the long underwear soon.



I haven’t seen any more scorpions, so I guess that is good. I know they are still out there, but if they don’t want to show their faces, that’s ok. There is a new creature now. Not exactly sure what it is. I am not the only one to see it, so I know I am not hallucinating from dehydration. It’s a small furry thing, about the size of a fox or small dog. It has a long tail. I don’t know if they have foxes around here or not. I don’t think it is a werewolf. Someone else who saw it, said it has pointy, triangular ears, like a hyena. I only saw it at night going to the latrine.( I was going to the latrine, not it). So I only saw a glimpse of it as it ran by. I didn’t hear it laugh so I doubt the hyena. I guess I need to Google it find out what creatures they have around here

Tom

He is a Hero

This morning, (about 9 or 10 PM Tuesday night Chicago time) I got on the internet to look up the news. We have an Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes, that makes it here about 3 or 4 times a week. It is always a few days behind. The paper I picked up yesterday was dated September 5th, so a few days behind. So to get more current news, I usually go to my Yahoo home page and read the current news, sports and important things, like how much my stocks have dropped this summer. I was looking in news on Iraq because outside of what is happening in Mosul, I really don’t know anything except bits and pieces. Anyhow, I was looking through the photo section (easier to look at the photos than read). I saw this photo and holy cow, I know this guy. President Bush was visiting Walter Reed and so they released this photo of the President saying hello to one of the soldiers. This is one of the guys I spent celebrating the first day of Ramadan with, only in the OR. When he came in, he was literally half dead. He required massive transfusions and all of us work a quite a bit on him. We usually don’t get follow up on our patients. Once they leave our facility, it is rare that we know how they finally did. I was really worried about his one leg surviving, but by the picture, it looks like both legs are making it. Just seeing his picture made me feel it is worth it. I don’t mean to brag, but knowing that I helped saved someone’s life and their limbs makes it all worth it. Especially since he is one of our soldiers, it makes it especially nice. I am glad I joined the Army and had this opportunity to help.

Seeing that soldier alive makes me glad I am here. I know I owe a lot of thanks to everyone back home; Nancy and my family for me being gone, my partners and Selina (my PA) for taking extra call and seeing my patients. Also, all my friends and relatives for their support, prayers and packages that I received. Thanks everyone for being so wonderful to our troops and myself.

I have been steadily busy here. Fortunately, it hasn’t been too much of the big trauma like above. I now have 3 clinics a week and see a lot of injuries in the EMT (ER). There are a fair amount of fractures and dislocations that keep me busy, just like back in the states. I usually just reduce them, cast them, and eventually they are sent to Germany. We don’t keep many soldiers in casts here. Especially if it is a leg cast and they are on crutches, it is too dangerous for them to stick around. Occasionally, if it is an arm cast, we keep them at the base and someone finds something for them to do.

I will do the critters next time

Tom

How Embarrassing

The rest of the week has been much better than the beginning of the week. It took a bit to get caught up, but now I am pretty much back to my regular schedule. I was too busy to go to the gym for a few days and I thought I was getting soft.

Speaking about the gym, I had an embarrassing moment. Of course there are a lot of young bucks around. If we did a steroid test on them, I bet at least half of them would test positive. Anyway, I was just about done with my work out and I had one more set of the bench press to do. This was my maximal set; I was going for 5 or 6 reps, when one of the young bucks came in. He was young about my sons’ ages, but then again just about all of them here are about my kids’ ages. So I asked him for a spot, so I wouldn’t drop all that weight on my face. He was nice enough to help me. So as I got up, he wanted to use the bench, which I was done with. I asked if he wanted me to remove the weights I just used and he said no. So, as I turned away to get my water bottle and head phones, he proceed to do the bench press. The only thing is that my max set was his warm up set. He popped off a set of 10 reps with little effort. I left in a hurry. I guess that happens. At my age I should be happy that I am able to even do the bench press at all.

We had some visiting brass here for 2 days. So we had to do some cleaning up and get ready for inspection. I had to pretend I was a real soldier for a while. You know, like stand up straight, tuck my shirt in, and not wear my Cub hat in the OR. I actually talked to one of them for a bit. Nice guy. Originally from Wheaton, so we had something to chat about.


We are back to our Saturday night barbecue. That is where for a few hours we do our outside grill, drink our NA beer and tell our jokes and exchange stories. I grilled this week. We cook just hamburgers and hot dogs. We borrow buns, ketchup, and tomatoes from the dfac. No one had to report for food poisoning afterwards, so that is a good thing. After dark, we are required to wear these reflective belts. They really show up in the camera flash.

WARNING – I think at my next posting I will talk about slimy things that crawl around in the dirt here. We have a collection of a few critters. Anyone who doesn’t like snakes, or poisonous creatures, should probably skip my next blog.

Tom

The Crap Hit The Fan

Ramadan sucks,

Man, I hate Ramadan, it truly sucks. The first day of their holiday, I spent almost 14 hours straight in the OR. I know there are good Muslims out there who care about people and are decent people. Sorry to offend those people who really treat it as truly a religious holiday. I know it is the radical Islamics and terrorists, who take advantage of the decent people and just want to kill Americans at no matter what costs or harm to others. Yesterday, they attacked one of our vehicles. We had 4 badly injured kids, and I do mean kids, they look so young. I am very proud to say that they are all 4 alive thanks to the hard work of the doctors, nurses, techs and support staff. They all jumped in and kept working, not taking breaks until everything was done. 3 out of the 4 were literally half dead coming in the door. It was quite hectic. We went through a lot of blood, almost exhausted our entire blood supply. 2 of them we transfused over twice what their normal total blood volumes are. Because they were young and healthy, they survived. Someone my age would not have made it. I guess that is one of the reasons they have the young guys out fighting the war. They have a better chance of survival when the injuries occur. While these guys made it, unfortunately, I was busy with all their extremity wounds. I have never seen such horrendous wounds. Never, have I seen anything so destructive in civilian life. Some of these soldiers are going to have permanent deformities the rest of their lives, because of these extremists. I am so proud that we have such fine medical people who worked so hard to help these soldiers of ours. My hat is off to them.

I am sure that one of the sergeants will get a medal of some type. One of the commanders in the recovery room afterwards was telling me about this guy. While both his legs are badly mangled, he put his own tourniquet on one leg (all the soldiers now carry tourniquets). Then he was directing his other soldiers, helping them, even with his own catastrophic injuries. I bet things would have been worse if he didn’t take charge and kept a level head.

Sorry to write all this but I needed to unload a bit. Hopefully, we are through the worst of things. This is one of the reasons why I joined the Army. I wanted to do what I could to help these wonderful soldiers. Anyone who has any doubt about the tremendous sacrifice these guys and girls are making should come over here and see them in action. No one is better than the American soldier.

I am very proud of these soldiers, but I think I would rather be bored and studying Spanish.

By the way, the pic is of my front door to my room or "CHU".

Tom

Ramadan - The Sky Is Falling

Well, we had our power point presentation on Ramadan. For those of you who are not Muslim or like me, just not very knowledgeable about it, I can tell you all about it. We already had our first causality from it. It is the Muslim holiday where they essentially fast for about 30 days. They can’t eat or drink anything of nutritional value from sun up to sun down for the whole month just about. ( I wonder if they can drink coffee or pop, I was told that stuff isn’t good for you anyhow but does it have nutritional value?) They also can’t do anything during the day that is pleasurable like, you guessed it, sex. (Hmmm,I wonder if that has any nutrional value, never mind). They also somehow think shooting their AK -47s and mortars into the air is a way of praising Allah. They tend to do that at the beginning mainly, and at the end of the holiday. Occasionally, just for fun, they shoot them off during the middle of the holiday just to remind us they are out there. I guess that works when you have a small place out in the freaking desert, where you don’t have to worry about where it lands. However, when you are in the city, with 1 -2 million other people around who are also shooting off their toys, what goes up eventually comes down. Amazing how that works. Anyhow, our casualty was just walking on our base and caught a ricochet off the T –wall and was hit in the abdomen. Fortunately, it was just a flesh wound, but still, imagine if it hit him in the face or head. It has the potential to do some damage. One of the little mortars hit one of the gyms that I work out at. Fortunately it didn’t do any real damage. I would have been pissed if it was damaged and I couldn’t work out there anymore. I think all it did was scare the cockroaches and scorpions. So, there is a memo out we got to stay indoors as much as possible for the next month, after our cleanup and work is done. Maybe that is not a bad idea.

The pics are from our OR. As you can tell, it is not too much different than our own back home. Maybe just a few years behind the times, but really, not too bad. We do share the room. There are 2 OR beds in the same room. So if we get massive casualties at the same time, both beds are used simultaneously.

The other pic is for the OR people at Condell. The scrub shirt was given to me by the OR people. That’s when I embarrassed myself by putting it on at the party (Boy that was a good party of what I could remember). Anyhow, the OR people enjoyed the comments on the shirt, like “Duck” and other comments.

Tom

Interesting Day

Well, this is officially my 36th day in a war zone, but who is counting. I will have to remember to record that in my baby book later. Anyway, I had a new experience today. I flew in one of our helicopters. At our base here, they use Blackhawks for flying the wounded in. They will be eventually using a new helicopter, but that will not be available for a while. Because the injuries have been down, they haven’t been flying on as many missions as before. The pilots have to log a certain amount of flight time, so they do training missions on the base every so often. I was lucky to go on one of those missions, and it was neat. They go through their preflight checks, (for the pilots in the group you know about that). They stand on it and check everything out. They buckled me inside (they know I am fragile). One thing I never thought of before, but they practiced like “touch and go” landings and take offs. I always thought the helicopters go up or down, then travel to wherever. But these guys were landing like a plane, rolling down the runway, then take off again, just like a plane. They said it is actually easier to land like a planed than the up and down stuff. They even practiced landing on an angle, so they used the side of a hill because not always where they land is it always level. It was a neat experience.



In my last blog, I appreciate Kristin’s comment about her Iraqi cab driver. I just hope it never comes down to invading Iran. It certainly is nice that some people besides Americans appreciate our war efforts.

Found an interesting web site that people may be interested in checking out. (Actually, I bowered it from one of my fellow doctors here). If you goggle “Mosul Airport” or click on the link, it gives some good information of where I am hiding these days. All along I thought it was classified information, so I am trying to be vague and secretive, and now I find out that you could download it from the internet all along. It has a picture of the airway and also quite a few related links. Some of the information is old, like from 2003, but it gives you an idea.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/mosul-airbase.htm


Tom

I Escaped For the Moment

I know I have it easy, much easier than a lot of people. Sometimes it does bother me that I feel like I am wasting time. I guess I am so used to always being on the go at home, not having enough time to get everything done that I need to do. I guess I don’t take the time at home to stop and smell the roses. I feel sometimes I should be working harder, but that would mean more injuries for our troops which would be a bad thing. Sometimes I need to take a step back and ease up.

Last night I treated myself. We pass around a lot of DVD’s to each other. The guy before me left his TV and DVD player so I had something to watch it on. I also got a care package that had a box of Girl Scout cookies (note I said “had”). I got this old movie with Dean Martin and James Stewart called “Bandolero”. It also has Rachel Welch, which definitely helped. It was probably made before a lot of you were born, but that is the type of movie that I grew up on. So last night, I put the movie on, turned off the lights and nearly eat the whole box of Shortbread Girl Scout cookies. It reminded me of when I was a little kid. For a moment I mentally escaped. I even forgot that there was a war going on outside those T –walls that protect us. When the movie was over I turned on the lights and then it was like “WOW”. Then I realized I was back from my mental escape and back to reality. It was like waking up from a dream that seemed so real at the time, but when you wake up, you realize it was just a dream. I guess I still need that little mental break once in a while.

The pic is different trucks and vehicles lined up for chow.

Tom

Another Day in Paradise

Just another day in paradise. Another bright sunny day. Not a cloud in the sky except for occasional smoke billowing up from a blast or fire. It is definitely cooler now. High about 106 today. I actually enjoy the later nights or early morning around sunup, it is actually cool then. Daybreak is about 0500. The sun sets about 7:15 PM. The only bad part is that you get sweaty outside, then go into an air conditioned room, then I freeze a bit. Hey, it could be worse, like no air conditioning at all.

I talked to my son, Mike this morning. It was a good conversation. He will be deployed in about a week. He will be in Al Asad area, which is maybe a few hundred miles from here. I don’t know if I will be able to get together with him while both of us are here. I will have to see what the commanders say.

The Army is doing a good job keeping us busy. I know the load is down for the troops, but they have sponsored a lot of activities. The gym sponsors a lot of sporting events in the evening. About once a month, they put on tournaments for 3 or 4 days. Things like basketball, volleyball. I joined a 12 inch soft ball team. We came in 2nd out of 9 teams, so not too bad. ( I think I was more of a help than a hinder. We will see if they ask me to play next month or not.) As you can tell by the photos, it is truly a sand lot baseball game. There is nothing but sand, rock and hard ground. You have to wear sunglasses, because when the wind blows it really gets tough to see.

I started to take a Spanish class 2 evenings a week. Interesting that I travelled 8000 miles to learn Spanish, when I never bothered at home. So far it is going pretty good. I don’t know if I will ever be able to say those “rr” words. We will see how much I retain.

Go Cubs and Bears. What a cute family. I predict a cross town world series for Chicago in October.

Tom

Big Ones in Iraq

The other day they found 2 poisonous scorpions. One was outside our Cho’s, the other was inside the EMT (ER). They were each about the size of my fist, so pretty good size. One of the SF guys (Special Forces) told me that they were big enough and had enough neurotoxins in it that if it stung a small child, he or she could be dead in 45 minutes if not treated. He thought the creature was not fully grown yet, that they can get bigger. I don’t know if he was trying to just scare me or impress me, but now I sleep with the light on and make sure I shake out my boots in the morning before putting them on.

I had an interesting experience the other day. They have these security guards all over the place. They are at the defac, the gym, every entrance and exit place. They are just about all from Uganda. Apparently, they are part of the multi-national Coalition Forces here. Besides the Americans and British, I see some Ukrainians and occasional other forces that I don’t recognize. I guess the other forces are friendly since they are walking around amongst us and no one gets too excited about it. Anyhow, I was walking into the gym and the Ugandan guard says to me something like “Mozaise” or something like that. So I ask him what that means and he says “Old Man”. Well that didn’t make my day. I worked out a little harder that day. Then I got to thinking, was it a compliment or not. In some of their tribes back home, the old men are like the tribal leaders and they are looked up to. It is a form of respect. Basically, if you lived long enough to get grey hair over there, that was looked upon as an accomplishment. Or, did he mean like what am I doing here with all these 20 something year olds. After all, I guess I am as old as most of these guy’s fathers. Just wait and see if he shows up in my clinic someday and see how long he waits.

Tom

There Still Is A War Going On Over Here

I can see how easy it is to get complacent over here. I got used to the bombs going off in the distant, the gun fire and seeing smoke on the horizon. Since we haven't had much trauma lately, which is a good thing, it’s easy to let your guard down. You forget some of your training and precautions that you are trained to take when you hear it all the time. I admit sometimes I forget that I am in a war zone because we are so protected here. The other day I got a reminder. The bad guys shot 2mortar rounds into our base. When you feel your chair move because of the vibrations from the ground, you know it was a little closer than usual. Fortunately, they were just random, shot in the dark mortar rounds that didn’t hit anything significant. But,it is a reminder we still have to take precautions once in a while.

The morale of most of the troops is still pretty good. Things have been quite until today. A group of insurgents were shooting at one of our helicopters. Obviously, they returned fire. They killed all but one, at least from the report I received. He was shot up pretty good, though. He had multiple wounds everywhere. So they packaged him up and brought him in for us. Fortunately, we don’t make decisions on whom we treat or don’t treat. Anyone who comes into our place gets treated. Of course, they are checked and searched before they come in. So our trauma team went to work on him doing everything we possibly could. We put in chest tubes, transfusions and took him right to the OR to do everything we could to help him. We worked on him for quite a while, but nobody quit. I was very impressed how our medical staff pulls together help all comers no matter whom.

I received a gift the other day. I was so proud to have it. I put it up in my room. I thought about outside, but I didn’t have proper lighting and it’s so dusty outside that I didn’t want it to get ruined. I took a picture, so that is the “picture of the day” that I included.

I want to thank everyone who supports me in my efforts. Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks for letting me know that you are behind me. I really do appreciate it.

Tom

Happy Anniversary

Do you know what today is? Exactly 1 month ago today, I reported for duty at Fort Bennings, Georgia. I know they say that when you join, it is like marrying the Army. Oh well, happy anniversary. Today is day # 24 that I have been over here, which means only 66 more days to go. But who is counting anyway. Time is starting to slip by and I will be home before you know it, sort of.

We got a new general surgeon today. The bad news is that we usually have 2 anyway. Last week they took one to move to a forward surgical team east of here. It is kind of like the front lines. So that means that they are planning on something that will need medical support, so things potentially may get busy there and here. We may need the second general surgeon.

The good news is where he came from. He came from Ramadi area where my son, Mike, was last year. He said they are downsizing the medical unit. It is going from a 100 person unit to 25. Since last year the trauma and violence is down so much, that they just didn’t need that much medical support anymore. This is the same providence that the bloody battle for the city of Fallujah in 2004 -2005 is in. If you recall we lost a lot of American lives and had a lot of American injuries there. Before the battle, the media had written the providence off as an insurgence fortress that we would never control. The people of Anbar providence have made a complete 180 degree turn. They got tired of the insurgency and started to work with us. The Iraqis have really taken control there and are protecting themselves.

It is similar here in Mosul, only not as advanced as Ramadi. Unfortunately, there are still areas that need to be cleaned out. The good part is that the Iraqis are doing more and more of the fighting, so that means less American injuries. That is a good thing.

I was walking down the hall, and saw some modern equipment. I had to take a picture of it. Now that was an example of somebody using his head or has too much time.

Happy Anniversary

Tom

My Farmer's Tan

I am working on my farmer’s tan. About the only sun I get directly to my skin is when I walk to the gym in my PT uniform (my shorts and short sleeve shirt). They don’t allow you to go around without your shirt on here. That should keep my daughter and wife happy. A few years ago, my daughter had some friends over at the house. It was late, say about 11 or so. I was already in bed. So I went downstairs to have them turn the music down, but I didn’t bother to put a shirt on. My daughter complained to my wife about not having a shirt on, saying “Any man over 40 should not be in public without a shirt on”. I told her she should be grateful at least I put my pants on. Yes Dear, I will start behaving. Anyhow, my arms and legs are getting tanned, but the rest of me is pasty white.

There is amazing art work here. The Army has some talented soldiers. On the T-walls, different soldiers have displayed their artistic talents. Some of it has faded, but still quite impressive. This is a lot better than what is displayed on the bathroom walls. I guess I am not the only one with some free time.

Even though I am not very busy with the big traumas, I still am taking care of our troops. I see people in our clinics almost every day. There are a lot of sports related injuries I see. The gym is big, has a basketball court, lots of machines and weights. I see a lot of things that I would see in my practice back home. I have seen ruptured tendons, lots of strains and tendonitis. The only problem is I can’t do a lot about it now. If it is bad enough, then I send them to Germany. If not too bad, then I give them some anti-inflammatory meds and they tough it out.

Tom

Life is good

We are having a cool front move in. It was only 109 today. I could actually tell it was a little cooler than the usual 115-117 range. The trade off is the dust. When the dust flies, it is thick enough to actually block some of the sun, but then you are left with that sandy taste in your mouth. Oh well.

I had a really great day yesterday. Probably the best I had since I left Chicago. Another doctor and I went shooting last night. We shot the 50 caliber gun that sits on top of the humvees. Man, just the size of the bullets is amazing. They’re huge. I was mowing down bushes and trees. If John Wayne used this instead of his rifle, his movies would have been over in 15 minutes, with no one left standing. No trees or buildings either. You can’t stand too close because just the air pressure from when it is fired can almost knock you over. Those are some big guns. I also got to play with the night vision goggles. Those are really neat. I can’t believe how well you can see at night with those things on. It’s almost like Superman looking through things with his Xray vision only it is night time. I felt like a real Army man last night.

I was so wand up after shooting, that I found an old package of microwave popcorn. I shook off the dust (everything is dusty over here). I went over to the hospital, used their microwave, half burnt it, but that’s ok, it still tasted pretty good. I picked up a cheap movie, “Hancock” at one of the local shops. The quality wasn’t t too bad. It didn’t quite fit on the TV screen and occasionally you see a head stick up once in a while, but hey, for 2 bucks I can’t complain much. Anyhow, I got some NA beer (that’s the only type they sell down here) and I watched the movie with my burnt popcorn and NA beer. I didn’t know that Becks makes one, but it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed it so much that I actually stayed up past my usual bed time of 8 PM, all the way to 10:30 PM. Watch out, I am starting to become a real partier now. Life is good, it is the simple little things that counts.

The other good news is that the violence is down.I don't know if it is the surge, or maybe just the fact that people are tired of all the bombs and violence. Probably just a multitude of reason. When I talk to the soldiers who go outside the wire, they say they see the difference. They used to have 15 -20 incidents a day of snipers or IEDs or whatever. Now it is down to just 2 or 3 a day. I guess that is one reason why I am not so busy, but that is ok. It gives me more time to post on my blog site.

Tom

What's New in Iraq

I tell you, the first I do when I get to my room at night is check my emails and for any comments on my blog. I really appreciate all the notes and mail.

I know that a lot of people ask for my address to send care packages. I really have just about everything here that I need. It’s the old foot soldiers as they used to be called, the infantry men and women who have it a lot worst than me. They are the ones who could really use the support. There are some very worthwhile programs who support them. Fisher House at Hines VA Hospital, Wounded Warrior Foundation, Marine Parents Organization, and where Nancy volunteer’s, OSOTIL (Operation Support Our Troops, Ill). Anyone interested in supporting the cause, I would appreciate donating to one of them instead of sending me packages. Thanks.

There has been a lot of noise around here lately. Every day I hear at least 3 or 4 times a day, blasts and gun fire. Sometimes it is the Army just shooting things off. Sometimes it is the real thing and a battle is going on. So there is still a war going on outside the my little Disneyland place. Sometimes we get see some of the injured. A lot of times they take the injured Iraqis to a local hospital.
The funny thing about the Army shooting things off is that about 2 or 3 minutes after the blast, then the PA systems announces that they are doing a controlled blast. Not sure what that is, I think they find an IED which they can’t disarm, so they blow it safely.

The medical system here is really self-service. I am told that when we transfer the Iraqis to one of their hospitals, they really don’t have much of a nursing staff. If the soldier doesn’t have family, he is screwed. It’s the family who changes the dressings, bathe them, even have to bring in food for them because the hospital doesn’t feed them. We usually only keep them a few days before they are shipped out. I try to get as much definitive care in as possible before they leave. We only keep them a short time because we are a small facility and don’t want to be tied down if American soldiers need us. I never want to hear complaints about nurses in America again. If someone complains, they should try recovering over here and see how they like it.

Tom

More Fun Things

Things are still going well. I am learning a lot of how they do things in the Army. Some are good, some ways are archaic, so I just go along with the flow and do OK.

I am learning about the Iraqi culture. A man is allowed to have more than one wife. I am not sure how they can afford it, but even some commoners have more than one wife. The other day, one of nurses was telling me about one Iraqi policeman who had 5 wives. If say 2 of them were fighting, he would call all 5 of them in, and hit them all to correct things. Man, imagine that going on in America. He would have been buried a long time ago.

The next little story I already emailed to some people, since it was funny, I thought I would put it here.

In category of "Lessons learned in Iraq" we have a pager system here that is pretty much next to completely useless. There are no phones here, very few cell phones. There is no phone in the ward, nor in my hut. There are phones in headquarters and main office for transferring patients and administrative things. So if they need me they page me and I have to go to the hospital to see what’s up. If I am at the gym or dining hall, a half mile away, they send somebody because the pagers don't go that far. So one night about a week ago, a nurse needed me for something. I didn't have a pager because I lost my original one, which they were real happy about. It wasn't too late, 10 PM, but then, I was in bed by 7-8PM. So the nurse comes over to my hut, she knocks on my door. I answer it, but forgot that the door opens out, not in. So when she opens the door out, I don't have a door to stand behind, so I am standing there in my boxers talking to this nurse. Funny thing is she has never knocked on my door since. Oh well, chalk that up to lessons learned.

Somewhere up the chain of command, I guess we are part of the Air Force command. Still not sure how that works, but I guess since we get a lot of soldiers flown in and we next to the airport, we are some division of the Air Force. The groups nickname is "Eagle Medics". The pic is right in front, first thing you see off the airfield. The other pic is my room.

Tom

Follow Up in Iraq

It has been a good week. I got a lot busier, mainly taking care of Iraqi soldiers and policemen. There was an IED bomb that I heard, kind of like the big white bangs that you hear at the 4th of July fireworks. Well, I got busy that day. The amazing thing is the character of these soldiers. When they first wake up after surgery, they first ask me if they still have their leg (the injuries usually involve their legs much more frequently than the arms).Fortunately so far I have said yes. The second thing they say to me is “thank you”. Man, that makes my day. Just hearing them say that knowing I helped them out is medicine at its finest. We do have limited equipment, but we get by and do Ok. Sometimes, I have to think on my feet because they don’t have what I am accustomed to working with, but hey, that’s life in the big city. Right? It’s a good day when I know I helped someone when they were having a bad day. Life is good.

Tom

Second week in Iraq

My sleep cycle is still out of whack. I usually fall asleep about 7-8 PM. Then wake up about 3 or 4 AM, and then I go work out. The temperature is usually 115 during the day. It cools off to 80 or 85 at night. Never thought I would consider 85 cool, but it really feels that way.

Unfortunately, I had to take care of my first US war casualty. He was touch and go for awhile. He finally pulled through and now he is on his way to Germany for further treatment.

These soldiers over here are simply amazing. In my clinics I see a lot of support personal, like either contractors or soldiers who do the supplies, repairs, staffing, etc. They are ok, but the real heroes are the infantry or troops who go out on missions every day, outside the wire as they say. They go out where it is not safe and do their jobs. When I see them in the clinic, I can’t keep them down to treat them. All they want is something to get them back on patrol. They won’t leave their battle buddies out there without them being out there with them. They will just suck it up, live with it and go back to their mission. The dedication of these guys is awesome. They are the real heroes who make a difference. I am one of the luckiest guys in the world to be privileged to help them. I am so lucky just to be among them. God has been so good to me. I thank Him for the honor.

For those of you in the OR, the picture is really what I wore on my first case. I can wear, and frequently do, wear my combat boots in the OR. I also wear my ACU pants. A lot of sterility and precautions seem to go out the window here. Quality control has not been invented here yet.
Tom

First Week in Iraq

I am doing very well in Iraq. The place I am in is like a mini Green Zone in Bagdad. It is about a little less than a square mile in area. It is lined with T-roll, which are 10 or 12 ft big construction cement blocks on the perimeter. There hasn’t been a mortar attack in a few months.
My hut is in a section appropriately named “Scapel Lane”. Nice little section where most of the docs are, next to the hospital.
I have not been very busy with trauma or surgical cases which is good for a number of reasons. I have been busy learning how they do things around here. I do a clinic twice a week. I see mainly things like I would back home, like torn ligaments, tendonitis, a lot of aches and pains. There is no dictation system at all. Everything I do, I have to type into the computer. There inpatient system is old and archaic, based on a DOS system. The outpatient clinic computer is Windows based, so it is easier. They don’t talk to each other, so I do a lot of duplication. The good part is that at least I get a lot of practice typing, which I certainly need.
They have a good gym here with lots of equipment. I have been going about every day. The dining facility (defac) is great. They have a wide selection, lots of desserts too. I have to be disciplined or I will come home a fat cow. It is probably a good thing that they are both located about ½ mile away, so I walk it back and forth 3 times a day.

Tom