At the end of my last post, I made a promise to you to write again "tomorrow" to fill in the rest of the information about our final week in the field. Well, tomorrow turned in to the next day, then the next, etc., so my apologies again for the delay. But hey...here I am now. Let’s get started.
The final week at Camp Bullis was, in fact, my favorite of the three. It lasted only three days, but each day was unique and thrilling. Our task was to put into practice all we had thus learned regarding the first 3 levels of combat casualty care. On Monday, my group was tasked to provide Role 3 care; in essence, to man a combat support hospital. The CSH consists of a village-sized tent system that houses everything from operating rooms and trauma centers to mess halls and barracks. My responsibility this day was to act as RTO (radio officer...never heard what the "T" stands for!). I coordinated the flow of the incoming ambulances and CasEvac trucks...cool stuff. The only problem was that my call sign was "Band Aid 1," not butch enough for my taste!
Tuesday was, far and away, my favorite day! I actually got to do something that, A) I never thought I would be required to do, and B) I never thought I would have the opportunity to do. Tuesday was our turn to man a Role 1 facility, the most forward and austere of organized casualty care. The main purpose of Role 1 is to assess, stabilize, and MedEvac casualties to the appropriate ascending level of care. While this was, in and of itself, exciting enough, we were treated to additional training by having an actual Dustoff Blackhawk on-hand...we just happened to luck out and be the group that got to work with/on it! After setting up our Role 1 location (in a grove of trees in a remote part of Bullis), and treating our "casualties" wounds, the Dustoff made its approach and landed in our LZ. It was my honor to lead one of the litter teams across the open ground and load our stretcher-borne patient onto the idling chopper. Yes it was a simulated situation, but when you have rotor blades blasting past your head, exhaust smell in your nose, an aircrew giving you directions, and an actual human being on your litter, it was as close to real as possible. Truly visceral and totally thrilling, it was the fulfillment of a dream born of watching waaay too many episodes of M*A*S*H! (And on the convoy back, my truck crew experienced what I consider to be the funniest episode of the FTX, but it’s not fit to print here in the blog. If you want to know, speak to me privately! Let’s just say it involves M-16s, smoke grenades, and some of our superiors hiding in the woods!)
The final day was a true challenge. I came into it looking forward to our tasks, but was sorely disappointed one the ball was rolling. Today was Role 2 day; if I am deployed with my unit, the 848th Forward Surgical Team, this is where we will be put to work. When assigning tasks for the day, I promptly volunteered to work with the mock-FST to get some hands-on experience. I was granted to opportunity to do so, and gratefully began the tasks at hand. About 10 minutes into the 3-hour exercise, however, the lead instructor decided to throw a massive monkey wrench into the works and reassign each person to a new position. For me: I went from lowly a FST 70B to the XO (executive officer) of the entire facility. HOLY CRAP! I should be flattered at the massive promotion (still waiting to see the pay increase, though), but the XO, in essence, is in direct control of every operational aspect of the facility. I found myself ass-deep in patient tracking efforts, MedEvac requests, mass cal treatments (apparently the facility got hit by some mysterious artillery fire...never heard it coming, myself!), and resupply needs just to name a few. In three hours, we treated over 60 patients...not too shabby if I may say so myself! The most difficult ones were our psych patients: if not watched by hospital personnel at all times, they were instructed to run amok around the hospital, try to steal our weapons, and cause mayhem whenever possible. One of them tried to attack our command post and erase our patient tracking board, but our security force got him under control...thank goodness!
Later that evening, we gladly boarded the buses and returned to Ft. Sam for the final time. We decompressed for the night, turned in our field equipment on Thursday morning, then in the afternoon rehearsed for our graduation the following week. Friday morning I had the pleasure of flying home to Cincy for a much-needed Labor Day visit home! I loved spending some time with my ladies back home, but the time passed much too quickly. I flew back to Ft. Sam on Monday, participated in our Phase III graduation on Tuesday, and began my job-specific track training on Wednesday. I'll report on those activities next time we speak.
I'm thrilled to report that my class is down to only 5 days left on post. I'll be returning home on the evening of 20 Sept., and I look forward to seeing everyone when I get back. I'll keep working through the remaining challenges, and will have a couple more posts for you before I head out of here. For now, be good to yourselves and each other, check in on the ladies, and I wish all of you...
Peace.
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