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