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JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, March 20, 2007 -- When the first six soldiers from the medical team with C Company, 710th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Task Force Spartan, touched down here, they inherited a bigger and better aid station, but one that was in need of some improvement.
"It was neat to have a vision in my head about how I wanted it to look and then watch it become real,"
Army 1st Sgt. Danny Darroch
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At the time, the building was occupied by Marine embedded trainers and served as the sleeping quarters for French troops, making it ill-equipped to receive patients.
When the building was finally cleared, the medical team of soldiers, led by Army 1st Sgt. Danny Darroch, a native of Dodge City, Kan., was ready to begin the construction of the new aid station. With his guidance the team began to map out how it would transform the original sleeping quarters into a fully functional and operating aid station that would put the old single “B-hut” station before it to shame.
The trained medics would have to take on a new role. They would be part-time construction workers while remaining full-time medics.
“We didn’t need engineers, we had medics,” said Army Capt. Lisa M. Dennis, commander, C Company of Desoto, Texas.
The team had several challenges before it. The biggest challenge was to build up the station on their own without the expertise of engineers.
In order to accommodate the larger number of services the new aid station has to offer, such as X-rays, dental care, physical therapy, a laboratory and a pharmacy, the team needed to separate the new aid station.
The team members built partitions to give each new department its own area. The station was also in need of desks, cabinets and shelves, which the team was also responsible for building.
With construction projects going on in the aid station, the team managed to treat patients even as repairs went forward. Still, the team remained focused on marshalling resources necessary to achieve its vision for the future.
“When we first got here we were begging, borrowing and stealing to get anything we could to build the walls for rooms. The resources weren’t available,” explained Darroch.
Somehow they managed to complete the necessary projects to become fully operational in just three weeks.
“It was neat to have a vision in my head about how I wanted it to look and then watch it become real,” Darroch said.
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