Free Republic

In battle, one of the hardest challenges is saving the wounded. Medical professionals encounter injuries not normally seen in peacetime, and many times see multiple life-threatening injures requiring immediate treatment on the battlefield. Another problem is moving patients across hot desert sands on bumpy roads in Iraq, which can be logistically challenging and uncomfortable for the patient. And there is always the danger of roadside bombs. To solve these problems, military aeromedical planners developed what is now an efficient medical evacuation system that moves patients from where they were injured to definitive care quickly and safely. Along the way, patients...

TAHOUA, Niger — Heat exhaustion, dehydration, diarrhea. “Stuff” happens when soldiers spend days in 120-degree desert heat in Third World conditions. That’s one reason soldiers from the 160th Forward Surgical Team were brought to Niger for Flintlock 05. There might still be dust from Iraq on their medical tent, one said, because that stuff is hard to get out. But inside it’s nearly as clean as a hospital. One week into their mission in Niger, the doctors and medics of the 160th FST had treated three cases of heat- or food-related misfortune. Flintlock 05 is a monthlong training exercise for...

The sergeant stationed just west of Baghdad was once again recounting the dangers of being on the front line - sometimes with dark humor. He referred to how the "muj" (mujahideen or insurgents) were the gang that couldn't shoot straight, but still represented a considerable threat. "They're horrible shots," he wrote in an e-mail to his family, "but every once in awhile they get lucky. We lost another Marine the other day." This is the first war in which American GIs and military families can communicate freely and in real time via e-mail and cellphone, while gathering endless amounts of...

WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, WASHINGTON - Members of the NFL's Denver Broncos football team and the team's cheerleader squad came to visit recovering war wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. and National Navel Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. on April 7. "We came to show our support for our heroes," said one player. He was speaking of the same group of "heroes" that former NFL football player Pat Tillman belonged to before he was killed while serving in the Global War o Terrorism in Afghanistan — the United States military. "This has been a very...

Michael Paterson was 45 years old when his Navy Reserve unit arrived in Iraq. He was virtually at the end of his Navy career. Paterson was more than a little surprised when he discovered he wouldn't be based at some rear area hospital where he could practice his advanced skills. He was headed to the front lines. His brothers in arms were the same age as his children. The other hospital corpsmen called him "Grandpa," and it was true. He had young grandchildren at home. When Paterson deployed into Iraq in 2003 with "follow-on" forces just behind the main invasion...

Soldiers that were severely wounded, lost limbs, but are going back to Iraq