Halloween Party

The Air Force is the fun service.  The Army and Navy not so much.  The old joke is that when the Air Force builds a new base, they build the golf course first and then request a new appropriation for the runways.  So when you put an Air Force contingent, like our nurses, together with a holiday, you get, lo and behold, a party.
 

Let no holiday pass uncelebrated.

Dahlia and Tess:  ICU Nurses, USAF Officers. Party Girls. Superheroes.


Included in the the party favors was a pack of holiday cards from the 3rd grade class at Holy Infant School in Ballwin, MO.  Thank you to them.

Halloween Card Bonanza

Hope that you had a spooky holiday.

Kat comes as a surgeon.  I mean a vampire witch.  Wait, is this a costume?

Penetrating The Wire

We had an unfortunate case a few days ago.  An American soldier came to us with about 50% of his body having second and third degree burns including his arms, legs and torso.

He had been standing guard at one of the remote FOBs.  Insurgents penetrated the outer wire and staged small arms in the no man's land between the inner and outer wire.  They then approached the front entrance posing as Afghan police while simultaneously staging an altercation.  The scene drew this soldier out of his position.  He was hit with a Molotov cocktail.  The perpetrators then fell back to their small arms cache intending on an ambush.  A firefight ensued between them and some other guards.   The insurgents broke off the engagement and fled through the breech created in the wire.  They were not caught.

The good news is that we dressed his wounds, started his resuscitation, and quickly got him a MEDEVAC.  He should already be at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio where there is a world-class burn unit. 

It is another cautionary tale about the nature of this war.

February 2011. This is an update to the original post. The story was a lie. His army unit investigated it carefully because they were concerned about new tactics by the insurgents. Apparently the soldier wanted to go home because he was homesick and having relationship problems. He concocted the story and enlisted one of his buddies to collaborate it. The truth is that, while at his guard post, he soaked his clothes in diesel fuel and lit himself on fire. We can vouch that he got more than he bargained for if his intention was to get home.


I do my best to give an honest report and appraisal of what I see and hear within the constraints of operational security. I took his story at face value and will continue to do so when I speak to others because most of our patients and colleagues speak in good faith. 

Sorry to mislead. I do think that the story still represents a cautionary tale if now for different reasons.

USO: Supporting Troops

The USO is a great organization. 

USO volunteer in New Jersey

We have had a lot of friends and family offer their thoughts and prayers for this endeavor and on some mail days it seems we swim in care packages.  We are grateful for that.  However, if one wanted to do something else for the troops, you could do a lot worse than donating to the USO.   From care packages in San Diego, to airport hospitality centers across the country, to lunch counter at McGuire AFB before bordering overseas flights, to entertainment and shows in Kuwait, to recreation and phone centers every place, the USO has been present on each step of this journey.

USO serving lunch to deploying troops headed to Middle East

Here is their web site: http://www.uso.org/

While I'm at it, I will also give a shout out to another organization that provides support for deployed troops.  The VFW sponsors free phone call days at the phone center here on the FOB which is a very nice gesture because keeping in touch with friends and family at home is the best sanity therapy around.


FOB Lagman Phone and Computer Center (aka "Skypeville")



October Chill

The mornings have gotten cold here in Qalat.  However, there can be a 40 degree daily temperature range in the desert mountain climate so the afternoons are pleasant.  Team members have been digging deep into their bags to retrieve the cold weather gear that seemed so cumbersome to lug around in the heat of Kuwait.  There is an upside to cold weather.  We have been waiting for the cold and alternately invoking Moses to end our plaque of house flies.  But some of the buggers are still hanging in there.  So the battle rages on.

Our work has been steady.  We seem to be on the "an-IED-per-day-keeps-the-doctors-in-play" plan.  Most of our patients have been Afghan National Army.  We did treat two patients with stab wounds from the same incident.  Details were sketchy.  We weren't sure if there was a bayonet charge or if two dudes jumped them on the way to the mosque.  Our most serious incident involved four Americans who suffered significant facial trauma and head injuries in spite of their MRAP.  We believe that they may not have been properly restrained.  Getting thrown about inside your vehicle is hazardous to your head which is one more excellent reason to use your seatbelt.  You've heard of "Click-it or ticket" and "Seatbelts save lives".  I propose "Buckle for the blast." 

Every year the army sponsors the Army Ten-Miler run in Washington DC.  Army units hold shadow runs around the world including FOBs in combat zones.  So yesterday, on their day off, about 100 dedicated souls got up at 0600 and ran six laps around the perimeter road in the cold, against the wind, up the hills, over the rocks, and through the dust for about two hours.  Good on them.  I think they get a T-shirt.

ISAF Press Release

The International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, has issued a press release on one of our patients.  We had not heard the story of this little boy's family when he was treated here.

Kat, our plastic surgeon from San Diego, took the lead on his treatment.  He was resuscitated and his burns were cleaned and wrapped.  From here, he went to one of the local civilian hospitals.  He was doing as well as could be expected when he left us but he faces a tough future.

Life On The FOB: Part IV - The Quest For The Clean Latrine

There is a spreadsheet that I keep on my laptop that counts down the time left on deployment.  It gives you the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds remaining along with clever commentary to mark the milestones. 

The Quest Defined

Lately, it has been asking how many steps to the latines? Think the designer has been here himself?  Well the answer in our case is 65.

But the far more pressing question is how many steps to the clean latrines?  This is because the holy grail of FOB life is a clean place to sit and do your business.  Unfortunately, finding such a place is a more arduous task than you might imagine because, the clean latrine, as with any journey, is more an ephemeral state of being than an actual destination. 

Chivalrous Latrine Etiquette

Yet in spite of manipulating cleaning schedules, utilizing cipher locks, and threatening guard duties, we have thus far failed.  Nevertheless being dedicated knights, the quest continues. We are undaunted until we have scoured the four corners of the FOB.  For as a wise person once told me "Nothing worth doing comes easy."  And rest assured that once the prize is found, we will be delighted to share it with dozens of our closest noble friends.

Move Along, Lancelot

Instant Karma

Did I write that we were bored?  Uh yes.  Did I knock on wood?  Uh, no.  Be careful what you wish for....

A few hours after that last post everyone was in the midst of their afternoon routine when the call went out.  I was in the gym working up a treadmill sweat.  A civilian vehicle was caught by an IED.  In this case it was the secondary kill zone.  It had apparently stopped short of a suspicious object which served to flush it in the blast area of another IED.  The explosive element was a propane tank which limited shrapnel but caused a powerful concussive force.  Three passengers were killed, two survived, a father and his three year-old daughter.

Their injuries were extensive.  The girl had fractures to both of her tibias and a femur, pulmonary contusions, and, as we found out later, a closed head injury with brain bleed.  The father had a pelvic fracture, lung contusions, and injuries to his liver, spleen and spine.  We activated the walking blood bank and donors from the base lined up.  The surgeries went on for the next 6 hours just to get them stable enough for transport to the hospital at KAF. 

Twelve hours later we had our first enemy casualty.  He had accidentally detonated an IED that he was placing.  He arrived with a massive head injury and no pulse.  There was little that we could do for him.

Finally, this morning there were three army combat engineers from a route clearance team.  Another IED.  Fortunately none of the three were badly injured.  Chock up another save to MRAPs and body armor.

Route clearance is probably the most dangerous job here.  One bit of grafitti from the latrine wall put it this way:  "Route Clearance.  I look for what you run from.  I get blown up so you don't have to."  All I can add to that is "thanks."