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In 2013, I was working the Night Shift in my hospital. I was awakened one early afternoon by my work pleading with me to come in early as they were completely overwhelmed. It was the day of the Boston Marathon bombing.

I hauled ass and got in about 3-4 hours early. It was absolute chaos there. I went in and I was almost instantly caught up in the frenzy of it all. The PACU was an absolute madhouse. I was given no assignment, they just wanted me to ‘help out.’

I saw true camaraderie that day. I took one ventilated Patient down for a CT Scan. The delays were so acute that the Oxygen tank ran low. I found a 50 PSI O2 port and it was good but I was in fact immobilized. I needed a replacement tank but I could not abandon my Patient. I had only been on the clock for fewer than 20 minutes and already I was in a Jam.

I got help rather quickly. One of the ‘Transporters’ became my ‘Runner’ and he obtained a fresh tank for me. He saved the day. There was a lot of that going on at that time. It was as if the entire Hospital Force was augmenting each other. I did not know the first thing about my ‘Patient’ only that the CT Scan was required ‘Stat.’ Well, we got that done.

The entire facility seemed to be in a state of kinetic entropy. There was so much going on simultaneously. It was simply impossible to figure it all out, so in that case we all had to go with the flow.

The Operating Rooms were going at Maximum Warp. There was noise everywhere. This buzzing environment continued on for hours. After 17 hours or so, I went home, took a cat nap and I was right back in it early way before my Shift.

So much happened that week that is as a blur. I was here, I was there, I was feeling the adrenaline for days.

One thing though, there quickly was a sort of military presence around the Hospital Perimeter. I could not help but notice that all of the vehicles and equipment were painted black. The persons who were in the area on guard duty or whatever were all outfitted in black. There was no Army Camo or Desert Camo, everything was black.

I wondered about where all of this equipment and stuff came from.

I used to carry a small bag with a bit of lunch in it. I had to open that bag up for the ‘Authorities’ to investigate my Tuna Sandwich, Twinkies, and Diet Pepsi. The one time I most recall, the fellow was very nice and congenial, but I did not like it.

I still wondered about where does all this hardware come from(?).

This article got me thinking about that week

https://inthesetimes.com/features/obama_police_miltary_equipment_ban.html