Mother’s Day

There are two Afghan Bazaars on the base where you can buy local crafts, fine jewelry, Persian rugs, Cashmere scarves, military type gear, etc. The salesmen often overprice their wares, but this is part of their culture/customs. I feel a little strange talking them down to save $10, when they live in an economically depressed economy off base. A couple weeks ago, I visited the South Bazaar and after being told, "I have good deal for you my friend!" several times, I bought three scarves and mailed them to Kirstin, her mom, and my mom (with a note of appreciation for all they have done and still do for me). Today, is Mother's Day and I am happy that the mail system worked so well that all three of the packages made it to Oregon before the holiday. Mother's do amazing things for us and while we should appreciate them every day, it's nice to have a day set aside specifically to honor them.

Letterman Barracks

The dorm I live in (with most of the hospital staff) is called the Letterman Barracks. Just like Disney Road is not named after Walt Disney (it's actually named after Army Spc Jason Disney, one of the first soldiers assigned to Bagram. He died in 2002 from injuries sustained in a welding accident improving the base for others), the Letterman dorms are not named after David Letterman. The dorms are situated as part of the barrier to the hospital compound (one side opens on the compound, the other off the compound, most people only use the inside access doors). I found this plaque on the outside the compound portion of the facility. Fitting that our medical dorms are named after someone who "revolutionized battlefield medical care" in his day.

Avenger’s

When I left home, the movie, "Avenger's Infinity War" was nearly out in theaters. Emma was so excited to go see the movie that she wanted to buy a dozen tickets for her and her friends to go on opening day. Earlier this week I found out that there's a movie theater on base (smallish and in a MWR rec center) and they had this movie on their play list for the week. Emma's already seen the movie twice and was sad that I couldn't go with her, so I thought it would be fun to go see the movie. It took me two tries. The first try was last night. I walked across the base to the theater and found a good seat (right in the middle, where Kirstin would have wanted to sit). I had a bag of popcorn and a bottle of water. About 8 minutes before the movie started I got paged from the hospital's Ops Center with an urgent requirement from the Grp/CC. I tried to answer the query over the radio, but was unable to and had to walk back to the hospital instead of watching the movie. Tonight, I tried again. The movie was decent, but terribly disappointing as it was a pirated version. The whole way through the movie, there was the shadow of someone's head on the bottom of the screen; the sound was awful swapping from music too loud or dialogue to soft. On the way back I ran into several hospital staff and we had a good laugh on the way back, interesting that we'd have pirated entertainment on a military installation.

Ski Afghanistan

The whole time I've been here, I keep thinking about how the beautiful snowcapped mountains surrounding the valley would be a perfect place to build a ski resort (except for the whole, bad guys wanting to shoot you off their mountain thing). Today, on a light post across the street from the hospital, I found the following, apparently I'm not the first, or only one to have this thought. Ski Afghanistan could very well become the first X-treme ski club in the world. It's not just extreme ski slopes, it's X-treme survival as well!

ERPSS

In trying to learn about and engage with the various staff/functions here I followed our ERPSS (en route patient staging system) crew as they transported a few patients from the hospital to a C-17 air frame from Charleston. The team connected with the AE (aeromedical evacuation) crew from here, a CCAT (critical care aeromedical team) from another base, several members of the patient's unit, and the air crew to perform the complicated task of moving an ICU patient to Germany while maintaining the safety of care to the patient. Again, I am impressed with the training and fluidity of how this process works. Each team knew their role, each team respected the roles of the other teams, and the process rolled along like they had all been working together for months (even though each team was new and many had never met each other). As we move through life, there are folks who have gone through the trials we face. Being able to learn from their mistakes and follow a better path is a lesson of humility. Humility can sometimes make us feel that we are giving up control and can be a fearful experience when we don't know the outcome or have full trust/confidence in those who are helping. However, when we are able to put aside our pride and gently follow the trails left by others, we can usually get to our desired destination with fewer mishaps/missteps along the way.

FHE

The LDS group has a recurring FHE meeting Wed nights. I've missed the two prior, but made sure to attend this week. I was all set for a great social experience with fellow saints. The only other person who showed was the group leader, we had a nice chat but ended up calling the event and heading home early.

MASCAL update

The dust of yesterday's chaos is still settling. Half of the patients brought in yesterday are still in the hospital, but are on their way to recovery (for some, the road will be longer than others). Today brought another level of chaos to the hospital. There were probably 100 people who stopped by to see the wounded. Teammates and leaders (American and Afghan) came to honor them, came to console them, came to learn their stories. My favorite is two of the Afghan soldiers who were pinned down behind a building where Taliban members were shooting at them and lobbing grenades over the wall at them. They were both badly wounded and before passing out were able to put tourniquets on each other's legs, saving each other from continued loss of blood. Their unit then blew up the building and pulled them to safety, both of them still have their lives and their legs because of the many hours of training, practice, and foresight done before they started this mission. Often in life we applaud the heroics of the moment. We need to remember that it's the time leading up to the moment that will determine your ability to succeed when called on.

https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/pentagon-identifies-army-specialist-killed-in-afghanistan-1.524965 

Additional information on the event has come to light as the soldiers are recovering. During the delay while still under-fire, there were two of the Afghan soldiers who successfully applied tourniquets to each other’s legs before passing out from loss of blood. The tourniquets successfully stopped the blood flow and not only saved their lives, but our surgeons were able to repair the damage, release the tourniquets, and save their legs. I’m amazed at what medicine can accomplish today.

Winning

Intro meeting with the Wing/CC, BG Baker. He has a very interesting leadership style focused on building relationships. He spent most of our time asking me about me, where I’m from, my family, what I’m interested in, etc. After learning about me and telling me about him, the only work related question he asked was, “What does winning look like?” His goal wasn’t for me to lay out a 9-step plan about what I was going to accomplish during this deployment, it was to think about what success might look like to me. It may be an accomplishment, but it might also be something unsubstantial/intangible, like building a great team that does great things. He didn’t want me to give an answer during our interview, but to save it for when I’m getting ready to go home (his tour ends in a month or so). The answer seems obvious, there’s not a major accomplishment, the goal is to leave things better than I found it and to make things better for the next several rotations. My goal is to help others find their way to success, if I can do that, we all win (patients, staff, the mission, etc.).