Wednesday 6 April 2011

Today my teammates and I went to the Flight Line Badge class to gain access to the flight line so that we can attend the Fallen Comrade Ceremonies. We were a bit late getting to the Pink Palace, the location of the class and the only physical building located on Bagram. It actually has tiled floors and indoor plumbing, ohh the excitement! Anyways, we wound up about 10 minutes late and the soldier who was running the class was already talking the students through the power point test. We began to think we must have been told the wrong time because they appeared to have already gone through the class portion and moved onto the test. Turns out, the whole thing WAS only 10 min long! Most expedient military operation ever!

Afterwards it was a quick trip to the post office to pick up mail, a long line at the Base Exchange to pick up our pressed uniforms and then back to the office. After about an hour at the office, I went over to do my hospital visit and today was a really rewarding experience as I was able to meet and speak with several of the patients who were on the inbound Medivac that I assisted with last night. They actually remembered that I was there and it was just nice to have a chance to chat with them and follow up now that they were stable and resting in the hospital. I also spent almost half an hour holding the hand of a very very sick soldier in ICU. He was heavily sedated and unconscious, he had been hit by an IED which had badly damaged his stomach organs and he was I septic shock. His body looked so miserable and the nurse said he could hear me so I stayed much longer than normal just so he wouldn’t have to be alone.

On a related note, we’ve been given approval to have a pizza party for the ICU staff and we are in the process of getting that event off the ground to honor their efforts which largely go unrecognized and unappreciated. It will also be nice to have the opportunity to social with the hospital staff because they often come across as unapproachable in the hospital, largely I suspect , due to the tragedies that they see everyday.

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