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WASHINGTON, May 5, 2008 – As the reigning Miss Utah and as a combat medic who has deployed to Afghanistan with her National Guard unit, Sgt. Jill Stevens said her experiences as a soldier have helped her in her civilian life. In an interview on the “ASY Live” program on BlogTalkRadio.com, Stevens said her experience from November 2003 to April 2005 taking care of up to 40 patients on any given day at the Bagram Air Base medical aid station gave her the determination and adaptability that are paramount to her success in other aspects of her life. "Being...

KARMA, Iraq — A convoy of humvees, 7-ton trucks, and mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles pull up to a sheik’s home. As they arrive, local citizens, already lined up, wait outside the gate to receive aid through the teamwork of the local government, Iraqi Security Forces and Coalition forces. On April 12 and 13, Marines of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, alongside Iraqi doctors, conducted a cooperative medical engagement to provide medical care to Iraqi civilians in the Gnather and Lahib villages. On the first day, Iraqis eagerly waited as Marines from Company F admitted them one at...

BAGHDAD — Shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday, there was a desperate wail at the back gate of B Company’s compound in Sadr City. A woman had been badly burned and her relatives were begging for help. With little in the way of emergency services and travel hampered by blocked streets, nightly curfews and sporadic firefights, a steady trickle of Iraqis has been turning to the American soldiers here for medical care. Medics who have trained for combat have attended to a seizure victim, an infant brought in by an anxious father and a boy wounded by gunfire. On Thursday, they...

“We’d fly in under fire to save one of the guys,” says RAF pilot Dan Padbury. But as we approach he is told to hold his Chinook helicopter close by while US special forces fight the Taliban on the ground and clear the airspace for an assault by “fast air” – military slang for the jet fighters that are about to attack. The battle rages on. Meanwhile, we are kept in an extreme holding pattern. In fact, the Chinook is circling so low that you could almost stick your hand out of the open windows and touch the ground. There...

CAMP STRIKER — Over the last week, the Multi-National Division - Center combat aviation brigade has provided valuable support to the Iraqi Security Forces who are battling Shia extremists in the al Hillah area. More than 100 medical evacuation missions have been conducted to get ISF and civilians immediate medical care. Capt. Michael Kelly, aero-medical evacuation helicopter team leader with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, flies MEDEVAC missions south of al Hillah and toward al Kut, in areas where fighting between ISF and criminal groups have picked up in recent days. “We assist enemy, Iraqi Army and Iraqi...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Working with Iraqi civilian and U.S. military medical personnel, Coalition forces in Busayefi hosted a Combined Medical Engagement March 29. “We just came into this area and we’re trying to build a relationship with the people,” said 2nd Lt. Josh Duke, medical platoon leader, 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment. More than 260 Busayefi residents, including 115 children, were treated at the makeshift health clinic for aches, pains, rashes, nausea and other minor illnesses. They were seen by two Iraqi civilian doctors or one of two U.S. Army doctors. Busayefi is an area once dominated by...

The President today spoke about the National President's Challenge. The President also met with Bahamas' Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, Barbados' Prime Minister David Thompson, and Belize's Prime Minister Dean Barrow along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He then departed from the White House to spend the Easter weekend at Camp David.Pray for President Bush -- Day 2744 The Vice President visited Afganistan today. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashviliand Thailand Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama today. Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates met with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Texas teen in Afghanistan becomes 2nd woman soldier since WWII to earn Silver StarBy: FISNIK ABRASHI - Associated Press |Sunday, March 9, 2008 9:14 PM PDT ∞ CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan -- A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor. Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said. After the explosion, which...

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan - A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor. Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said. After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the...

The nation's third-highest medal for valor. Texas girl (Lake Jackson, near Houston). A nineteen year old kid (I'm allowed to say this at my age and I am not objectifying her). Under gunfire and mortar fire, she helped move wounded comrades to safety, at times shielding them with her own body. Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees. "We stopped the convoy. I...

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan — A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor. Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said. After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 6, 2008 – An 82nd Airborne Division medic who hospital officials here credit with saving a French soldier’s life in November says the treatment he provided was just “simple stuff.” But there was a lot more to it than stopping bleeding and pushing fluids. As a convoy of more than 20 vehicles snaked its way through a creek bed in Tag Ab Valley on Nov. 10, small-arms and rocket-propelled-grenade fire interrupted the patrol’s five-day mission of searching for high-value targets in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province. Army Spc. Nicholas Colgin, a medic with Bravo Company, Division Special...

A touching new movie about the school and how its graduates help heal our brave wounded warriors and about some of their courageous patients... Very few folks have heard of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU-HS), but it's a place we all (including the moonbats) should know something about. USU-HS is the military school that trains MANY of the docs & nurses who treat our wounded heroes from the battlefield to Walter Reed and other military hospitals around the globe. Its main campus is located on the grounds of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD....

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 3, 2008 – Despite advances in body armor and medicine, many soldiers would hesitate to expose themselves to a hail of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades. And not every soldier would risk his life to help a soldier from a different army. Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Peer, an 82nd Airborne Division Special Troops Battalion medic from Glendale, Ariz., deworms an Afghan child during a medical outreach event in a village near Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, July 14, 2007. Peer is credited with saving the lives of two Afghan soldiers who were wounded in Kapisa province...

Rawalpindi, 25 Feb. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - A suicide bomber on Monday struck the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing the Pakistan army's top medic, Lt general Mushtaq Baig.

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Feb. 12, 2008 – Doctors and medics here received a new tool to aid in the treatment of wounded servicemembers on the battlefield. The tool is a little too big to carry in a medic’s aid bag, and it comes equipped with armor and a crew-served weapon. The newest configuration of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle -- the MRAP ambulance -- was shown to the Combined Joint Task Force 82 staff yesterday. Having the MRAP ambulance brings survivability to the battlefield, Army Lt. Col. Coll Hadden, the forward MRAP joint program manager, said. Hadden said the vehicles...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17, 2008 – Utah Army National Guard Sgt. Jill Stevens’ “personal combat zone” has shifted from Afghanistan to Nevada, from a minefield to a beauty contest, from combat boots to high heels. Utah Army National Guard Sgt. Jill Stevens, who is competing in the Miss America pageant as Miss Utah, plays with children while serving as a medic in Afghanistan in 2004. (Photo courtesy of Sgt. Jill Stevens)   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 24-year-old Stevens also is Miss Utah, and she is a contestant in the Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas, which will...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Jan. 11, 2008 – Afghan national security forces and coalition forces yesterday wrapped up a two-day operation that provided free medical and dental services to villagers in remote sections of the Nahr Surkh district in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. An Afghan woman receives medicine from a coalition medic after a checkup. Afghan and coalition forces offered free medical and dental services to villagers in remote sections of the Nahr Surkh district in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Jan. 9–10, 2008. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The combined medical team treated more than 80 patients...

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, Jan. 2, 2008 – Today’s Army is an interdependent network of soldiers who are as unique as the jobs they do, with more than 150 military occupational specialties available to choose from. When a unit deploys to a combat zone, the soldiers within it depend on each other more than ever, along with their occupational knowledge, to keep operations running smoothly. Army Staff Sgt. Craig Sotebeer, an emergency care medic with the Medical Troop, Regimental Support Squadron, 2nd Stryker Regiment, inspects the contents of his combat lifesaver bag at Camp Striker, Iraq, in preparation for a...

RICHMOND, Va. - As an Army surgeon in the Middle East, Dr. Keith Rose watched a colleague bleed to death when a truck in his convoy was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. Rose could not get his comrade a tourniquet, which could have helped control the bleeding on his wounded leg, and sat along the mangled wreckage and talked with him as he took his last breath. "It really kind of frustrated me," Rose said. Once he returned to the U.S., Rose approached BlackHawk, a provider of military and law enforcement gear, with an idea to create clothes with built-in...