Healing Those Who Provide Our Freedom: Starting the Second Quarter

On 18 March the deployment was 25% complete, not that I'm counting.

There have not been many patients coming through the FST; which is a good thing. We did have a day when two traumas came in around the same time, but neither was life-threatening and one actually had to stay the night because the role 3 hospital that we transfer to was full. So, we’ve been passing the time with trauma training and cleaning and reorganizing. Since the Army FST we relieved was only here temporarily they didn’t do much in the way of cleaning, so we had a lot to do in that respect. Any of you who know me and my obsessive-compulsive personality understand how tough it was for me to wait for the Army to leave so I could throw away their crap, clean up their mess and rearrange everything to suit me. Anyway, the place looks much better now and makes coming to work a little more tolerable.

This week was also the start of “Bazaar Season” here at FOB Lagman. The Bazaar is a weekly event, similar to a yard sale, where local Afghans bring their wares to sell. Anything from movies and electronics to carpets and hookahs (see picture). If any of you saw The Hurt Locker, it was spot-on in its portrayal of the young Iraqi boy who sold DVDs to Staff Sergeant James. BTW, if I didn't mention it in a previous post, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Hookahs

The Romanian soldiers love to haggle. Its very amusing to watch.

A couple more pics from the Bazaar.

Also of note to football fans, I found out this week that our OIC, CDR Carlos “Charlie” Godinez, played center for Harvard in the late 1980’s. He played against some “big name” players including Gordie Lockbaum from Holy Cross and Mike Ruth from Boston College. He told a great story about his game against Boston College where he was facing Ruth, who played nose tackle. He said on the first play of the game he was so fired up and intent on making a statement against the eventual Outland Trophy winner that he didn’t even remember the play. He just wanted to show Ruth he was not going to have an easy day. He also said the one thing he remembered most was how bad Ruth smelled – like he hadn’t showered in a week. Anyway, after Charlie snaps the ball Ruth blows right by him into the backfield and “tears the quarterbacks head off”. He said he doesn’t think he blocked him all game. Great story for a football fan.

I had trouble sleeping this past Thursday night and went out for a walk around the FOB early Friday morning. While I was out I ran into a puppy (see pictures below). If you’re not aware, there is a general order for US military members that strictly forbids them from having pets or “unit mascots”, and you are definitely not supposed to pet stray animals, but I couldn’t resist. Since I didn’t see anyone else around I played with the little guy for about 5 minutes. I wish I would have been able to feed him something, although it looks like someone on the FOB is taking pretty good care of him. What a morale boost he gave me. I hope to continue to see him around.

Judi, please don’t tell Cowher I cheated on him.

I miss you and love you!!!

Take care,

John