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NORFOLK, Va., Nov. 4, 2009 – Army Staff Sgt. Megan Krause’s words come out in a rush, as if she wants everyone to hear and learn from her story. Staff Sgt. Megan Krause, an Army Reserve medic who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, hopes to help other servicemembers by telling her story of seeking help when post-traumatic stress had her spiraling out of control. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Krause, an Army reservist with the 365th Engineer Battalion in Pennsylvania, does want people to hear her story, and she wants to connect with servicemembers so they...

HERAT, Afghanistan, Oct. 20, 2009 – Men, women and children from villages near here came to a cooperative medical engagement near Camp Zafar to receive medical care Oct. 6 through 8. U.S. and Italian medical personnel apply lotion to an Afghan child’s face during a cooperative medical engagement near Camp Stone, Afghanistan, Oct. 7, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Marc I. Lane  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Afghan soldiers and civilian medical personnel, with the assistance of Italian, Spanish and U.S. forces, treated more than 300 people every day of the event. The Afghan army sent...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct. 20, 2009 – An Army Reserve soldier from Austin, Texas, who has been an emergency medical technician since 1993 was one of the last soldiers from Embedded Training Team Venom to leave Afghanistan’s Zabul province when Task Force Fury assumed the mission. Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Taylor trains an Afghan National Police officer during a combat lifesaver course in Afghanistan’s Zabul province, Oct. 2, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Stephen Decatur  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Sgt. Jonathan Taylor’s mission was to train Afghan soldiers and police to perform first aid, and to provide whatever...

No one writes about them. Their deeds go unsung. Which is why, for this gripping series, two writers decided to track down the awe-inspiring stories of the Army medics who have saved countless lives in recent British wars.They are a special breed of soldier - the medics who go selflessly into the heart of battle and risk their own lives to save others.Here, in the first part of a gripping series, we reveal the astonishingly heroic actions of two such medics and the men they fought to save, despite a horrifying lack of equipment and communication, in the scorching heat...

Continuing our gripping series of our extraordinary series about the doctors and nurses who go into the very heart of battle we reveal the terrifying events that unfolded in Basra in 2005, when a Warrior tank, sent to help an RAF nurse whose ambulance was surrounded by a hostile crowd, was hit by a petrol bomb.The soldiers inside threw themselves out, engulfed by flames. Their dramatic exit was captured by photographs that went round the world. But inside the flaming tank, the gunner was trapped. He was sent to rescue the medic; the question now was - would the medic...

DIYALA — An Army medic here saved the life of a young Iraqi boy after the child received several gunshot wounds from an unknown assailant, Sept. 20. Spc. Adam O'Krent, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, a native of Littleton, Colo., provided the care which saved the child's life. O'Krent's unit was patrolling near the village of Biwaniyah, north of the Diyala provincial capitol of Baqubah, when they received small arms fire between their Stryker vehicles that ricocheted off a nearby wall, said 2nd Lt. Terrence Nolan, O'Krent's platoon leader. Since there was no positive identification of a shooter, the Soldiers...

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jennifer Ybarra, a hospital corpsman with Combat Logistics Battalion 7, observes as a member of the 7th Iraqi Army Division's medical staff practices wrapping an ankle sprain aboard Camp Mejid, Aug. 24. Photo by Lance Cpl. Melissa Latty, 2nd Marine Logistic Group. AL ASAD AIR BASE — U.S. Navy corpsmen here have been conducting medical training with the Iraqi Army (IA) since their battalion arrived to this base in February. Once a week, Petty Officer 3rd Class Jennifer Ybarra and Petty Officer 3rd Class Vincent Hernandez, two hospital corpsmen with Combat Logistics Battalion-7’s Battalion Aid Station...

An heroic army medic treated seven injured comrades after a Taliban attack in Afghanistan despite being wounded with shrapnel herself, it emerged today. Lance Corporal Sally Clarke, of 2 Rifles, ignored the searing pain caused by the shards embedded in her shoulder and back and set about treating the rest of her patrol. The worst hit was Corporal Paul Mather who incredibly managed to radio instructions for jets circling above to open fire on Taliban insurgents despite bleeding heavily from wounds the size of his fist. Corporal Mather, 28, and Lance Corporal Clarke, 22, from Cheltenham, were on patrol south...

PETA planning protest at Camp Pendleton gate this weekUsing live animals to train combat medics and others in how to deal with traumatic injuries is no longer necessary because of sophisticated medical mannequins and other training options, people opposed to the practice argue. A group of doctors aligned under the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington contends it's not only unnecessary to use live animals, it's illegal, too. The group recently petitioned the Department of Defense to stop using animals, citing Army and Navy regulations. "The use of vervet monkeys by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical...

8/4/2009 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) -- Three Air Force aircraft along with multiple aircrew, aeromedical evacuation teams, and agencies from around the world gave a British soldier a fighting chance at life in late July after the soldier sustained multiple gunshot wounds and had his blood supply replaced more than 10 times at a military hospital in Afghanistan. According to officials, the soldier sustained multiple wounds to the abdomen and chest, and was transfused with 75 units of blood and another 75 units of platelets. Emergency surgery was conducted to repair the soldier's liver and lung. After...

AN Australian Army combat medic dashed 60 metres under intense insurgent fire to treat a mortally wounded Australian soldier, an inquiry has revealed. But despite the medic's efforts at resuscitation, Corporal Mathew Hopkins succumbed to a bullet wound to the head regarded as so severe that no medical help could have saved his life. Corporal Hopkins, 21, a member of the Darwin-based 7RAR, was the ninth of 11 Australian soldiers to die in Afghanistan since 2002. He was also the first member of an Australian training team to die in action since Vietnam. ..... With assistance from ANA soldiers, Corporal...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq, July 24, 2009 – Army Spc. Amanda Cleveland is a self-described simple girl who is "not into drama." But it’s tough for an Army medic to avoid dramatic situations, especially during a deployment to Iraq. Army Spc. Amanda Cleveland, a medic for the 28th Combat Aviation Brigade, describes the importance of pressure in stopping blood loss during first-aid training at Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq. Cleveland has trained nearly 1,000 soldiers in Task Force Keystone leading up to and during a nine-month deployment to Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. James Waltz   (Click photo for...

SAINT ROBERT, Mo. (July 22, 2009) — A Waynesville High School graduate serving in Iraq received the Bronze Star with valor device for his role as a medic in rescuing Navy personnel from a burning explosive ordinance disposal vehicle that had been blown into the air by a roadside culvert bomb. Sgt. James H. Carter, 33, followed up on that 2007 award by recently being named Medic of the Year for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, to which he’s assigned as part of the 82nd Airborne in his second tour of duty in Iraq. Although he’s the son...

Lecturer and author Dr. Nick Begich will discuss the latest research on telepathy in the battlefield, where brain waves alone can give commands..

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Ministry of Defense’s Surgeon General, Maj. Gen. Samir, welcomed Iraq’s military physicians for a two-day medical conference at the MoD’s headquarters here, May 4. The theme of the two-day gathering was, “working together for advanced military medical services.” The conference covered the achievements of the past year and looked forward to the future of Iraq’s military medical professionals. The doctors discussed many challenges facing the military medical corps, including quality control on medications, allocation of supplies, developing a standard medical history form and recruiting new doctors. “We need more doctors and nurses,” Dr. Samir said. The...

Mary Edwards Walker, one of the nation's 1.8 million women veterans, was the only one to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor, for her service during the Civil War. She, along with thousands of other women, were honored in the newly-dedicated Women in Military Service for America Memorial in October 1997

The U.S. Army has halted use of a powder designed to control bleeding only months after approving it because of concerns about its health effects. WoundStat was dropped because a study by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research showed it could injure the lining and walls of blood vessels, Army officials say. WoundStat is a clay-based agent that is poured onto a moderate-to-severe wound and held in place until it sticks to the wound, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved the product. The Army announced in October 2008 that it would start using it downrange,...

For years, the use of unscreened blood transfusions exposed severely wounded servicemembers and other trauma patients in Iraq and Afghanistan to the inherent risk of diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and malaria, according to medical experts who advise the secretary of defense. Battlefield attacks that resulted in mass casualties or severe injuries often overtaxed the military’s blood supply system until 2007, meaning medics collected fresh blood from those on site for emergency treatment of the wounded, the Defense Health Board wrote in a June 2008 report. The unscreened blood transfusions, however, did not meet federal safety standards required of all...

New procedures were rushed into theaters of war without rigorous review The U.S. Army has quietly altered or abandoned some of its more experimental medical treatments for troops injured in combat, as advances it once hailed as groundbreaking are foundlargely ineffective or perhaps even dangerous. Advanced battle dressings, a blood-clotting drug, alternative procedures for emergency blood transfusions - each was introduced early in the Iraq war, often with little evidence to support them beyond anecdotes or tests on animals. A few were adopted widely by civilian hospitals, based almost exclusively on accolades from the military. But an investigation by The...

BAGHDAD — U.S. Soldiers of the 6th Iraqi Army (IA) Division’s Military Transition Team (MiTT) recently hosted a combat lifesaver class intended to help the IA to shoulder more of the load as Coalition forces responsibly withdraw. MiTT members taught a variety of first aid techniques including treatment of head trauma, fractures, impaled objects and controlling bleeding. “Basically [the goal of the] training that we conducted is…to combine the experience of the Iraqi medics along with the American medics,” said Sgt. 1st Class Gary Petty, medical advisor, 6th IA Div. MiTT. “We’re trying to get them trained on trauma-type situations;...