Scarletwine
New Yorker
I really don't care if anyone wants to respond, but in many other threads the wounded were mentioned. Their numbers astronomically outweigh the dead, but seem off the radar.
This is really a tribute to them. Agree as you like, but I'm very concerned that they seem invisible.
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
War's bloody fallout
By PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, October 12th, 2003
Late last June, almost two months after the end of "major combat" in Iraq, Army Reserve Sgt. Rafael Vasquez, a city cop and nurse from Washington Heights, arrived at base camp Anaconda southwest of Baghdad.
Other Army medics welcomed his unit to the base, inviting them to a movie in a tent converted to a minitheater, but Vasquez's unit was too tired after the long convoy from Kuwait.
"Three mortar rounds found their way into the perimeter and into the movie tent," Vasquez recounted last week by E-mail from Iraq. "When I entered the trauma tent there they were, the same guys who invited us to the movie. Lying in blood and uniforms shredded from shrapnel. Nine out of the 20-men unit were seriously injured. We treated the wounds as best as we could and medivaced out the rest of the injured.
"That night I realized how quickly a life could end out here. A simple decision could make the difference between life and death. This was the type of environment we are in."
The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq mounts incrementally each day, rising to 315 and bringing sorrow to families halfway around the world.
But in a devastation that has gone almost unnoticed, nearly 2,000 G.I.s, Marines, Navy and Air Force members have been wounded in the war.
Many have lost limbs, suffered severe head trauma and shrapnel wounds in combat, vehicle accidents and other mishaps. Additionally, more than 3,000 soldiers have left Iraq with illness or psychiatric problems.
Like a shotgun
Many soldiers wear ceramic body armor ? the vests are nicknamed chicken plates ? that can stop a bullet from an AK-47 rifle. But it only goes so far.
"The wounds we see here are much more severe than what I've seen at home," said Army Sgt. Albert Gasbarra, working in Ibn Sina Hospital in Baghdad with the 28th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Bragg, N.C. A former paramedic for an ambulance corps in New York City, he has seen his share of gunshot wounds.
"Here, it's not unusual to see multiple gunshot wounds," Gasbarra said via E-mail. "They seem to be getting meaner and meaner. At first it was gunshot wounds, then it was RPG's [rocket-propelled grenades] and now it's IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. These things can range in size from a Coke can to a medium size box and even a watermelon. To me, the wounds from these things closely resemble a shotgun wound. Happily, the majority of these guys recover, so I guess it's a debilitating weapon rather than a killing one. Although that's happened too, unfortunately."
The route the wounded take begins in the field with Forward Surgical Teams, whose high-tech care in war zones have improved survival rates.
Vasquez is a critical care nurse in the 1st Forward Surgical Team out of Fort Totten, Queens.
"We can set up in one hour anywhere the action is and take as many patients as need be," he said. "We have an emergency room, an operating room and an intensive-care unit. All of this within two tents. We travel in six Humvees with enough supplies to last three days."
As a cop, he experienced the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on New York. Now he treats prisoner-of-war patients "who were happy the trade center collapsed," he said. Ibn Sina, a bullet-riddled, bland building, was an elite hospital during Saddam Hussein's regime. The dictator's son Uday was treated there after an assassination attempt.
1st Lt. Christopher Vanfosson, also a member of the 28th Combat Support Hospital, has been there for six months, through 130-degree heat, caring for soldiers with shrapnel injuries to the eyes, arms, face, chest and legs.
"Usually, the shrapnel is removed surgically, and the wound is cleaned out prior to [the soldier] being evacuated," he said. "If bones are broken, the unstable fractures are fixed and then evacuated as soon as possible."
He said diseases have run the gamut from pneumonia to appendicitis and viral illness.
Aside from hundreds of Americans, his unit has cared for nearly 1,000 Iraqis, both POWs and citizens.
The wounded soldiers are then medivaced to Kuwait, then to military hospitals in Germany or Spain. From there, Army and Air Force personnel go to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, and sailors and Marines go to the Bethesda, Md., Naval Medical Center.
Walter Reed has treated more than 1,400 patients. Ward 57 at the hospital has become a popular stop for celebrities and veterans' advocates. Its most famous patient was Pvt. Jessica Lynch but scores of young soldiers have had arms or legs amputated and replaced by prosthetic limbs there.
Vanfosson said the soldiers' spirits seem high but many are frustrated.
"They know that we have entered Iraq to bring freedom to this country and its people," he said. "It's hard for soldiers to understand why someone would want to shoot at or bomb the very people who are setting them free. But they love their buddies and they have a job to do, so those very soldiers injured and bound for the states anxiously try to return to their units to complete their mission."
I've read many other stories since the war started. I just wanted to bring them into your prayers and into consideration.
This is really a tribute to them. Agree as you like, but I'm very concerned that they seem invisible.
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
War's bloody fallout
By PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, October 12th, 2003
Late last June, almost two months after the end of "major combat" in Iraq, Army Reserve Sgt. Rafael Vasquez, a city cop and nurse from Washington Heights, arrived at base camp Anaconda southwest of Baghdad.
Other Army medics welcomed his unit to the base, inviting them to a movie in a tent converted to a minitheater, but Vasquez's unit was too tired after the long convoy from Kuwait.
"Three mortar rounds found their way into the perimeter and into the movie tent," Vasquez recounted last week by E-mail from Iraq. "When I entered the trauma tent there they were, the same guys who invited us to the movie. Lying in blood and uniforms shredded from shrapnel. Nine out of the 20-men unit were seriously injured. We treated the wounds as best as we could and medivaced out the rest of the injured.
"That night I realized how quickly a life could end out here. A simple decision could make the difference between life and death. This was the type of environment we are in."
The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq mounts incrementally each day, rising to 315 and bringing sorrow to families halfway around the world.
But in a devastation that has gone almost unnoticed, nearly 2,000 G.I.s, Marines, Navy and Air Force members have been wounded in the war.
Many have lost limbs, suffered severe head trauma and shrapnel wounds in combat, vehicle accidents and other mishaps. Additionally, more than 3,000 soldiers have left Iraq with illness or psychiatric problems.
Like a shotgun
Many soldiers wear ceramic body armor ? the vests are nicknamed chicken plates ? that can stop a bullet from an AK-47 rifle. But it only goes so far.
"The wounds we see here are much more severe than what I've seen at home," said Army Sgt. Albert Gasbarra, working in Ibn Sina Hospital in Baghdad with the 28th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Bragg, N.C. A former paramedic for an ambulance corps in New York City, he has seen his share of gunshot wounds.
"Here, it's not unusual to see multiple gunshot wounds," Gasbarra said via E-mail. "They seem to be getting meaner and meaner. At first it was gunshot wounds, then it was RPG's [rocket-propelled grenades] and now it's IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. These things can range in size from a Coke can to a medium size box and even a watermelon. To me, the wounds from these things closely resemble a shotgun wound. Happily, the majority of these guys recover, so I guess it's a debilitating weapon rather than a killing one. Although that's happened too, unfortunately."
The route the wounded take begins in the field with Forward Surgical Teams, whose high-tech care in war zones have improved survival rates.
Vasquez is a critical care nurse in the 1st Forward Surgical Team out of Fort Totten, Queens.
"We can set up in one hour anywhere the action is and take as many patients as need be," he said. "We have an emergency room, an operating room and an intensive-care unit. All of this within two tents. We travel in six Humvees with enough supplies to last three days."
As a cop, he experienced the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on New York. Now he treats prisoner-of-war patients "who were happy the trade center collapsed," he said. Ibn Sina, a bullet-riddled, bland building, was an elite hospital during Saddam Hussein's regime. The dictator's son Uday was treated there after an assassination attempt.
1st Lt. Christopher Vanfosson, also a member of the 28th Combat Support Hospital, has been there for six months, through 130-degree heat, caring for soldiers with shrapnel injuries to the eyes, arms, face, chest and legs.
"Usually, the shrapnel is removed surgically, and the wound is cleaned out prior to [the soldier] being evacuated," he said. "If bones are broken, the unstable fractures are fixed and then evacuated as soon as possible."
He said diseases have run the gamut from pneumonia to appendicitis and viral illness.
Aside from hundreds of Americans, his unit has cared for nearly 1,000 Iraqis, both POWs and citizens.
The wounded soldiers are then medivaced to Kuwait, then to military hospitals in Germany or Spain. From there, Army and Air Force personnel go to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, and sailors and Marines go to the Bethesda, Md., Naval Medical Center.
Walter Reed has treated more than 1,400 patients. Ward 57 at the hospital has become a popular stop for celebrities and veterans' advocates. Its most famous patient was Pvt. Jessica Lynch but scores of young soldiers have had arms or legs amputated and replaced by prosthetic limbs there.
Vanfosson said the soldiers' spirits seem high but many are frustrated.
"They know that we have entered Iraq to bring freedom to this country and its people," he said. "It's hard for soldiers to understand why someone would want to shoot at or bomb the very people who are setting them free. But they love their buddies and they have a job to do, so those very soldiers injured and bound for the states anxiously try to return to their units to complete their mission."
I've read many other stories since the war started. I just wanted to bring them into your prayers and into consideration.
