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Subject: FW: The List by a Navy Combat Doc
>Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 11:46:31 -0400
>
> -----Original Message-----
>From: Conway LtGen James T
>Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 12:31 PM
>Subject: FW: The List
>
>Gents,
>
>Tough one to read, but every word is real. S/Fi C.
>
>Greetings all from hot, hot, hot Iraq,
>We are short indeed...although not quite as short as we had originally
>thought...our flight home has been posted and is showing up 3 days later
>than planned. The good news is that we leave in the middle of the night
>and arrive (all admin complete, including turning our weapons into the
>armory) around dinnertime at Pendleton on the same day we leave (11 hrs
>time difference). The other good news is it appears we've got commercial
>contract air carriers taking us home...so we don't have to worry about
>sleeping on the cold steel deck of an Air Force C-17.
>
>So...we turned over authority of the surgical company last week to our
>replacements, who had a serious trial by fire here in multiple ways,
>including multiple traumas, surgeries, increased risk to their personal
>safety, power outages, water outages, and camel spiders in the
>hospital...all in their first 4 days. But a few days ago, we heard the
>helicopters coming and knew they were dealing with multiple traumas,
>several of which were going to the OR...and we sat in our barracks and
>waited for them to call us if they needed us. They never did. Last week
>was the ceremony to mark the official end of our role here. Now we just
>wait.
>
>As the days move very slowly by, just waiting, I decided that one of the
>things I should work on for my own closure and therapeutic healing...is a
>list. The list would be a comparison: "Things That Were Good" about Iraq
>and being deployed with the Marines as one of the providers in a surgical
>company, and "Things That Were Not Good." Of course, it's quite obvious
>that this list will be very lopsided. But I thought I would do it anyway,
>hoping that somehow the trauma, the fear, the grief, the laughter, the
>pride and the patriotism that have marked this long seven months for me
>will begin to make sense, through my writing. Interestingly, it sort of
>turned into a poem. To be expected, I guess.
>
>Most of all it's just therapy, and by now I should be relatively good at
>that. Hard to do for yourself, though.
>
>So here goes...in reverse order of importance...
>
>Things That Were Good
>
>Sunset over the desert...almost always orange
>Sunrise over the desert...almost always red
>The childlike excitement of having fresh fruit at dinner after going weeks
>without it
>
>Being allowed to be the kind of clinician I know I can be, and want to be,
>with no limits placed and no doubts expressed
>
>But most of all,
>The United States Marines, our patients...
>Walking, every day, and having literally every single person who passes by
>say "Hoorah, Ma'am..."
>Having them tell us, one after the other, through blinding pain or
>morphine-induced euphoria..."When can I get out of here? I just want to
>get back to my unit..."
>Meeting a young Sergeant, who had lost an eye in an explosion...he asked
>his surgeon if he could open the other one...when he did, he sat up and
>looked at the young Marines from his fire team who were being treated for
>superficial shrapnel wounds in the next room...he smiled, laid back down,
>and said, "I only have one good eye, Doc!, but I can see that my Marines
>are OK."
>And of course, meeting the one who threw himself on a grenade to save the
>men at his side...who will likely be the first Medal of Honor recipient in
>over 11 years...
>
>My friends...some of them will be lifelong in a way that is indescribable
>My patients...some of them had courage unlike anything I've ever
>experienced before
>My comrades, Alpha Surgical Company...some of the things witnessed will
>traumatize them forever, but still they provided outstanding care to these
>Marines, day in and day out, sometimes for days at a time with no break,
>for 7 endless months
>
>And last, but not least...
>Holding the hand of that dying Marine
>
>Things That Were Not Good
>
>Terrifying camel spiders, poisonous scorpions, flapping bats in the
>darkness, howling, territorial wild dogs, flies that insisted on landing on
>our faces, giant, looming mosquitoes, invisible sand flies that carry
>leischmaniasis
>
>132 degrees
>Wearing long sleeves, full pants and combat boots in 132 degrees
>Random and totally predictable power outages that led to sweating
>throughout the night
>Sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat...like wrists, and ears
>
>The roar of helicopters overhead
>The resounding thud of exploding artillery in the distance
>The popping of gunfire...
>Not knowing if any of the above sounds is a good thing, or bad thing
>The siren, and the inevitable "big voice" yelling at us to take cover...
>Not knowing if that siren was on someone's DVD or if the big voice would
>soon follow
>
>The cracking sound of giant artillery rounds splitting open against rock
>and dirt
>The rumble of the ground...
>The shattering of the windows...
>Hiding under flak jackets and kevlar helmets, away from the broken windows,
>waiting to be told we can come to the hospital...to treat the ones who were
>not so lucky...
>
>Watching the helicopter with the big red cross on the side landing at our
>pad
>Worse...watching Marine helicopters filled with patients landing at our
>pad...because we usually did not realize they were coming...
>
>Ushering a sobbing Marine Colonel away from the trauma bay while several of
>his Marines bled and cried out in pain inside
>Meeting that 21-year-old Marine with three Purple Hearts...and listening to
>him weep because he felt ashamed of being afraid to go back
>Telling a room full of stunned Marines in blood-soaked uniforms that their
>comrade, that they had tried to save, had just died of his wounds
>Trying, as if in total futility, to do anything I could, to ease the trauma
>of group after group...that suffered loss after loss, grief after
>inconsolable grief...
>
>Washing blood off the boots of one of our young nurses while she told me
>about the one who bled out in the trauma bay...and then the one who she had
>to tell, when he pleaded for the truth, that his best friend didn't make
>it...
>Listening to another of our nurses tell of the Marine who came in talking,
>telling her his name...about how she pleaded with him not to give up, told
>him that she was there for him...about how she could see his eyes go dull
>when he couldn't fight any longer...
>
>And last, but not least...
>Holding the hand of that dying Marine
>
>

[SangRun Hunter]

My heart goes out to her and all of those soldiers over there.

I told my younger cousin if I could I would replace him in a heart beat once when he was in Afghanistan. I still believe it today, but I'm just a little too old and with my health I would never pass muster.

If only I could lift the pain off the hearts of all the young men and women over there.
_________________
Mad as Hell!

[ccr]

Wow. What an amazing letter.

Am I the only one who cried reading that or just the only one who will admit it?

Our troops our completely misunderstood and underestimated by the terrorists, the media and the politicians (on both sides).

We as a country are so fortunate and blessed to have men and women such as this at the point of the sword in a war such as this. Sacrificing their own blood overseas so those at home may be spared.
_________________
Whose side is John Kerry really on? Take this quiz and decide for yourself.

http://www.learnthat.com/quiz/

[Rdtf]

I loved reading that

[Padma]

I had to explain to my officemates why a 50-yr-old retired Master Sergeant was sitting at his computer, crying. All I could do was point to the screen....
_________________
Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired)

[Scott]

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_________________
Bye bye, Boston Straggler!