Trial by Fire

Well it seems as if Daniel has not had time to post this week. I thought I would fill in the highlights before I forget them and he can correct me if I get it wrong.

He arrived in Mosul about midnight on Monday night. He said he was able to ride in the cockpit with the pilot, copilot, and engineer. They took a C-130 transport plane. He said it was AWESOME! He got to bed about 2am. He described his living quarters as a little tiny trailer for 2. I think this is what they may look like. If I am wrong - I hope Daniel will correct me. The following is a description I found for these types of "living quarters": . . . mobile white-walled trailers, to be used as soldiers' living quarters, were laid out in rows, in a manner resembling a large trailer park. Each soldier would have 80 square feet of living space. Rooms inside the trailers were to be approximately 4m2 large, oufitted with a small window, equipped with two beds, a table and lamp, a closet, and be air-conditioned. Between the two rooms, within each trailer, soldiers would share a shower, sink and toilet. His roommate is an ER doctor. I can't remember his rank but his last name is Apostle.

I received a call from Daniel Tuesday night telling me when he had arrived and that he had seen the hospital. It is no longer a tent but a "hard structure". He said for the next couple of days he would be getting shown around to learn the ropes because the unit they were replacing would be leaving by the weekend. He said the base they are on has a thick concrete wall all the way around so they can not receive any direct fire. That was comforting.

Thursday morning he called. He said they had done a mass casualty drill that morning with 26 patients. (Casualty can mean wounded not just dead like I had previously thought) Here they practice assessing each patient and deciding which should be operated on and which are beyond saving etc... I asked if that's a really hard decision to make - he said yes. I can't imagine being the one to decide if you recieve traeatment right away or not. He said his title during mass casualty is "trauma team leader". He is in charge of assessing the patients, stablizing them and getting them to where they need to be - operating room etc... I asked him if that was a little intimidating - he said it was challenging. Otherwise - his schedule is going to be a 24 hour on call type of thing. Pretty flexible when his services are not needed, but if they have a facial wound or mass casualty then he gets beeped and reports to the hospital. He said currently they only had 7 patients in the whole hospital (mostly gunshot wounds and injuries from explosions). He said on the whole it was pretty quiet.

I asked if he felt safe. He said yes. He was told though that have mortar attacks on the base roughly 5-6 times a month, but that they have underground bunkers for raids.

He said the base store is actually better than the one in Kuwait. They have a large gym with equipment for spinning, pilates, free weights and a full basketball court. The gym is inside a giant tent. The food is still good and he said if you wanted you could sit around and eat all day and they have lots of desserts. But he said he's trying to be disciplined and eat right and exercise. Daniel is happy he doesn't have to wait in long lines for the phones anymore(and we were able to talk nearly an hour that morning). This base has about 5,000 troops vs the base in Kuwait had about 20,000. He is able to use the computers but he said they are so slow that often he can't even post a comment on the blogs let alone upload his pictures. I am going to try to send an empty disc for him to put his pictures on and then I can upload some of them from here.

THEN:

I got a call from him Thursday afternoon too. He wanted to tell me that they had just had their first "Trial by Fire". The base had been attacked by a mortar bomb and 17 patients had come in to the hospital at once, 15 of them our soldiers from the base. WELL - this worried me. I was thinking he was safe if he was on the base but apparently not. He said he had been in the hospital at the time of the attack, which is a "safe zone" for mortars. His roommate however was in their trailer and had to run out and get in a bunker. I asked him if they wear their protective gear in the hospital, he said no, but he wore it to walk to the phones to call me. He said no one had died from the attack but they had to take several patients to the OR to remove shrapnel from their abdomens and they would be sent to Germany the following day. He did not do any surgeries this time because he said they had way to many surgeons because the former unit hadn't left yet. He cleaned and dressed some abrasive wounds and treated a solider that had been close to the attack and had ear, eye and head aches. He said this soldier should be nominated for a bronze star because he saw a female soldier go down and ran to her, picked her up and got her to a bunker. Then proceeded to administer first aid to her from the kits they keep in the bunker. After the all clear, he got her to a truck that took her to the hospital. She was one they had to get to surgery right way from shrapnel wounds to the belly. They even brought in two insurgents with gun shot wounds.

SO - I was a little worried! Then I didn't hear from him for 48 more hours, no comments on the blog, no emails, no phone calls. I even checked his military email to see if he had checked the emails I sent and they hadn't been looked at yet. But he called this morning. He said they have been really busy. He was told that this particular hospital has never been this busy. These new injuries took place off base however. He said they had several IED (improvised explosive device) and RPG (rocket propelled granade) injuries as well as small arms fire. They even had one US soldier and one Iraqi soldier die. He said when a US soldier dies that they cut communications at the base for at least 24 hours. That's why he couldn't use the computers or phone for so long. They do this so that the military can contact the family before the any news of his passing would get out otherwise. Daniel also performed his first surgery on a soldier who's cheek was ripped open. He took him to the OR and got him patched up. He said the increased attacks are likely related to it being Ramadan. He also said something interesting - the two insurgents there in the hospital have apologized. Daniel said one speaks English. The doctor treating him said, "we're still a little mad about the whole mortar attack thing." Then one of the insurgents said he never knew Americans were so nice. I don't know if they were being sincere or not but perhaps they have been indoctrinated that we are horrible people and then are surprised to find out that our doctors will care for them just the same as if they were they were American. And that we aren't the horrible people they thought.

Daniel received our first package in the mail. It was just tastykakes. It took 8 days to arrive (not to bad). He said even the chocolate was intact and not melted and he has a small fridge in his room to keep them cool. He shared them with other soldiers and I think everyone enjoyed them.

Well, I know this was a long post but perhaps it gives you a better understanding of what he's going through now. Please continue to pray for his safety!