Remember how K-9 handler Sgt. Aaron Yoder took a bullet for his MWD Bart in Afghanistan last month? Grab a tissue and watch them reunite at Brooke Army Medical Center.
09 May 2012
Sgt Aaron Yoder and MWD Bart - Reunited
Remember how K-9 handler Sgt. Aaron Yoder took a bullet for his MWD Bart in Afghanistan last month? Grab a tissue and watch them reunite at Brooke Army Medical Center.
08 May 2012
Last MRAP home from Iraq
Bagram CASF team plays critical role for wounded in theater
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – The team of nurses, medical technicians and litter carriers wait for the C-130 Hercules aircraft to arrive, ready to receive, in-process and prepare patients to go forward to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for further treatment.
The team is part of the contingency aeromedical staging facility, a modular staging facility designed to support worldwide expeditionary missions. Patients are staged at the CASF for approximately 24 hours where they’re provided medical attention while waiting for transport to a higher level of medical care.
“We provide 24/7 operational support to all scheduled and unscheduled aeromedical evacuation missions at Bagram Air Field,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Kimberly Boswell-Yarbrough, a native of Plattsburgh, N.Y., CASF flight commander. “We provide ground transportation and manpower for all AE patients to and from the aircraft, Craig Joint Theater Hospital or CASF.”
There is a core of 30 personnel comprised of nurses, medical technicians, administrative technicians and a pharmacy technician. They all come from different duty stations within the United States.
“The job I do in the CASF is very important, not only do we bring in, orient, change dressings and administer medications to these patients, we try to establish a report to assist them in coping with their injuries,” said U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Steven Holmes Jr., a native of Greenwood, S.C. “Some patients arrive and have their best friends over in the intensive care unit at CJTH in critical condition. To see the hurt in these soldiers’ eyes humbles me and helps me feel, even if a relative small amount, of the pain they go through in these situations.”
The CASF mission is unique for the members of the team because the vast majority of the staff performs a job entirely different from their home station occupation.
“Its extremely rewarding and gratifying sending our wounded servicemen and women to a higher echelon of care and knowing they are one step closer to being home with loved ones and able to receive the specialized care, treatment, or rehabilitation required,” said Boswell-Yarbrough. “I am very privileged and honored to have the opportunity to be part of this mission.”
In order to transport a patient through the different levels of care, the CASF staff interfaces and communicate with numerous agencies in order to complete an AE mission. The patients must validate and manifest on an AE mission prior to any movement.
The CASF team receives upwards of two C-130 intratheater missions daily from various medical facilities throughout Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Inbound missions can range from one to 20 patients.
To get to the next level of care at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the CASF team launches five scheduled outbound C-17 Globemaster aircrafts each week. The average outbound patient load can vary from five to 40 patients. The C-17 can accommodate up to 36 litter and 50 ambulatory patients.
“Our staff has really come together throughout this deployment. It takes strong individuals, physically and mentally to do what we do,” said U.S. Air Force Airmen 1st Class Alexandra Kennedy, a native of Westminster, Md., stationed at Brook Army Medical Center. “There is a sense of pride in knowing you are good at what you do and are part of a team.”
Once the outbound mission has been confirmed and scheduled, it takes approximately four hours to prepare the patients with appropriate medications, documents, equipment, medical supplies and litters. The CASF team begins loading the patients onto the ambulatory bus approximately two hours prior to departure.
“The patients are why I love my job. I am just truly honored to be here and do anything I can for soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen we get to help on a daily basis,” said Kennedy. “The real wounds aren’t always visible, and even when a mission is hectic or urgent, we can’t forget who we are serving, who we are caring for, or why we are here.”
“The military is my family. This is my way of thanking them for all they do for me,” she added.
06 May 2012
Guest post: This is How I Serve My Country
One of our donors, Becca Bryan of FLorida, asked that I share these thoughts about why she supports our wounded warriors. I think she hits the nail on the head with the last paragraph - it's all about letting our warriors know that people care.
Our thanks to Becca and all who care about those who have sacrificed so much for all of us.
This is How I Serve My Country
By Becca Bryan, SA Germany donor
I am often asked why I donate to Soldiers’ Angels Germany. I have not served in the military. I know a few people who are serving or are veterans of the military. For me, it is a strong desire to give back to those who are injured while on deployment. The simple comforts are home can be hard to find in a foreign country.
I cannot imagine being wounded on the front lines and send to LRMC with the clothes (or not) on my back. What would I wear? Where can I get some things that would make me feel more comfortable? Who can tell me where I can find these things? How long will I be here? But I do not have any underwear! I need to shave. I can’t wear a hospital gown on the flight home. What will I wear? My family is back home and can’t get here to bring me just a few things. Is there anyone here who can help me?
Those thoughts run through my mind when I shop for our wounded troops. It is the reason why I go a little overboard at the stores. It is the reason I keep smiling as I stack men’s boxer briefs in my cart, make a second trip for a pile t-shirts and basketball shorts and a third trip to fill a hand basket with Q-tips and razors.
Often, I hear funny and a few nice comments about the items in my cart and basket. Below are a few to hopefully put a smile on some faces:
- “You sure must have some hairy legs.” (I had a hand basket full of men’s razors)
- “That must be some vacation you’re going on!” (Had another hand basket full of travel size Q-Tips)
- “Why do you have so many t-shirts and now 5 pairs of basketball shorts” (asked by a guy in the men’s dept. He was impressed with my sending them wounded troops)
- “Why do you feel you have to supply them with all that stuff?” (I can put myself a wounded troop’s shoes better than this commenter)
You see, I do it because I want these incredibly brave men and women to know that someone in Florida thought about them. It is a sense of duty, actually. I wonder why more Americans don’t have the same sense of duty.
Our thanks to Becca and all who care about those who have sacrificed so much for all of us.
05 May 2012
Shout out to Camp Marmal
04 May 2012
U.S. troops' organ donations save European lives
From Garrett Hubbard of USA TODAY:
After Kelly Hugo flew through a snowstorm to reach the bedside of her mortally wounded son at a U.S. Army hospital in Germany, where he had just been brought from Afghanistan, she didn't hesitate when asked about organ donation.
"I said, 'Oh, yes,' " the junior high school counselor recalls, memories still fresh of that December in 2010 when she last saw her son, Marine Cpl. Sean Osterman, 21, of Princeton, Minn., "because something good has to come out of something bad."
Since 2006, about 140 European lives have been saved because organs — hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreases — were harvested from 36 U.S. servicemembers determined to be brain dead from wounds suffered in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to statistics from the German foundation that oversees organ removal and implantation.
All casualties from combat funnel through the U.S. Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for care before being flown to the USA.
The window for removing, transporting and transplanting organs is narrow given the viability of organs, making it difficult for them to be used in the USA, says Insel Angus, a Landstuhl intensive care nurse involved in these cases.
Troops who are brain dead from head wounds arrive on a ventilator. Even with ventilator support, key organs last for only 24 to 36 hours, says Joel Newman, a spokesman for the German foundation's USA counterpart, the United Network for Organ Sharing.
The U.S. military flies family members to Germany for a final reunion and, when appropriate time has passed, asks about organ donation, says Angus, trained to handle the discussions.
"It is very emotional. It is very difficult," she says, "because we feel the pain of losing one of our servicemembers. … We feel the grief of the family."
Read the rest here.
See also, The Final Gift.
For the Children
03 May 2012
First nurse takes command at Landstuhl
First nurse takes command at Landstuhl
By NANCY MONTGOMERY, Stars and Stripes
Published: May 3, 2012
LANDSTUHL, Germany — Throughout Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s long, storied past, medical doctors have almost always been in charge.
But on Thursday, Col. Barbara Holcomb became the first registered nurse – and second woman – to take command of the hospital, considered a jewel in the crown of military medicine.
“ ‘Landstuhl is such an awesome place,’ ” Holcomb, in her change-of command ceremonial speech, recalled a friend telling her when she got the news of her assignment. “ ‘They saved several of my soldiers.’ ”
Such admiration for the hospital staff’s expertise at saving the lives of wounded troops “runs deeply through many military leaders,” Holcomb said. “This is indeed an honor.”
Holcomb relieves Col. Jeffrey Clark, who served less than a year before being nominated for promotion to brigadier general and, next month, to take over as commander of the Europe Regional Medical Command. Clark will replace Brig. Gen. Nadja West, who is to become an assistant Army surgeon general.
Clark told those assembled for the ceremony – a group that included, as the hospital does in its 3,000-person staff, servicemembers from all four branches, civilians, Germans and a variety of other U.S. allies – that it had been an honor to be their commander.
“Landstuhl will change a person,” he said. “There’s something special about the place and the people who serve here.”
Clark said that although numerous, admiring luminaries have continuously passed through the hospital, the praise that meant most to him came from a Canadian warrant officer assigned there.
“I have two sons serving in the Canadian army,” the warrant officer told Clark. “What Landstuhl does is provide comfort for mothers like me.”
The hospital opened in 1953, part of the huge U.S. military presence after World War II and through the end of the Cold War. Today, it is the only U.S. military hospital remaining in Europe.
More than 62,000 wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated at Landstuhl over the past 11 years. More than 99 percent of them have survived.
The hospital is expected to stay busy with combat casualties for at least the next two years, when the U.S. withdraws most of its troops from Afghanistan.
The hospital, which also does clinical research and delivers about three babies a day, has received numerous awards, certifications and verifications, not only for its unparalleled trauma care. Landstuhl was also named best hospital in overall care throughout the military and veterans’ hospital system by a military surgeons association.
“Landstuhl is a commander’s dream,” said Clark, a family practice doctor with 28 years in the Army, who hasn’t practiced clinically for the past several years. “We think, wouldn’t it be great if, one day, I could command Landstuhl?”
Every Landstuhl commander in the past decade has been subsequently selected to be a general officer.
Holcomb, a 1987 ROTC graduate of Seattle University, has previously made nursing history. She was also one of the first two nurses to command a Combat Support Hospital – the 21st CSH, out of Fort Hood, Texas, which deployed to Iraq in 2010.
Having a nurse in command of Landstuhl for the first time is a testament to “the increased responsibility given to the Nurse Corps,” said Landstuhl spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
In fact, the Army surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, is also a registered nurse, the first nurse – and the first woman – ever selected for the job.
At the ceremony, West, Clark and Holcomb all lauded a non-medic who provided a highlight: Air Force Tech. Sgt. Craig Bowman, of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Band, who sang both the German and U.S. national anthems, a cappella, and with a soulful flourish.
“That was truly remarkable,” West said, before Bowman got a huge round of applause.
Cpl. "Robin Hood" Jones
You rock, Justin!
Justin Jones stares at his target, his bow in one hand, his arrow in the other. He zeros in, then he slings the arrow. And he’s transformed. His mind goes blank, and he finds peace.
Gone are the horrors of war. His pain is hidden. His ability far outweighs his disability.
Archery has become therapeutic for Jones, a corporal in the Marines with a bum leg and a weak shoulder, and it serves the same purpose during the Warrior Games, featuring more than 200 wounded, injured and ill service members and veterans from all five branches of the U.S. military competing this week at Air Force and the Olympic Training Center.
As a child, Jones, 24, of Ellijay, Ga., first shot a bow, and he hunted deer and turkey with his father, Tim. He never had entered an archery competition before he almost was killed in August in Afghanistan, struck by an improvised explosive device as he helped carry a wounded comrade to safety on a stretcher. Lance Cpl. Jeremy Vanhoose lost his left leg in the blast, and had the IED fully detonated, both Jones and Vanhoose might be dead.
“I have a lot of other buddies, and a lot of them are in worse shape than I am,” said Jones, who won the compound class Wednesday at Air Force, beating Fred Prince of the Army and Mark O’Brien of the Marines. In recurve, Dan Govier of the Marines was the winner.
Read the rest of Justin's story.
Update, great photo of Justin's mom and wife watching the Games :-)
Congratulations again, Justin!!
Another update - video. (There are going to be more updates on Justin... he's now up to FOUR Gold Medals after winning both the Pistol Open and Rifle Prone Open competitions!)
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