from: "Sgt. B" USA SGT USA CA
dateThu, Jun 12, 2008 at 7:51 AM
subjectFW: Next trip out (UNCLASSIFIED)
mailed-byafghan.swa.army.mil
hide details 7:51 AM (2 hours ago) Reply
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
Hello All,
Just thought I'd drop everyone a line to say hello and give a quick
update. Hot here but not that bad. Time is flying and finally back into
the swing of things after having the post R&R blues. I apologize if this
seems too long but this needs to be told because all too often people
there at home forget about the war here in Afghanistan and it is still
very much a war and that sometimes there are little miracles that put
things into perspective when there are some many other bad things
happening around you. I cut a few things out for operational security
but here is what happened:
As you all know I am a Civil Affairs Soldier and have a lot of face
time with the local populace. My job, my team, and the local PRT's
(Provinical Reconstruction Team) job is to help rebuild this nation and
try to help the people in any way that we can (a hell of a lot easier to
say than do). It's the whole "Hearts and Minds" thing but honestly that
is really hard to do sometimes because of the many obstacles we face
(enemy fire, mines, roadside bombs, culture etc) and it's not uncommon
to go from CA guy back to Trigger Puller in a heartbeat. To get to the
point, yesterday I went out on a mission with the PMT (Police Mentoring
Team) guys who are from the New York National Guard and a great bunch to
roll with. Myself and another Civil Affairs Soldier attached to them
since they were going to some areas where we needed to do some
assessments and check the progress of some ongoing projects. We left one
of our forward Combat Outposts (COP) first thing yesterday morning and
went to a local district medical clinic where the other CA Soldier
needed to assess the overall condition and capability of the facilities
and staff. While we were waiting for him to do his assessment, we were
handing out shoes and candy to the kids in the clinic compound and
generally looking around the area for anything of interest or suspicion.
One of the Dynacorp guys, J--, that works with the PMT and I were
walking around the area having a look and talking when we noticed a
young father (younger than me) sitting in the shade of the clinic water
tower holding his little girl (not more than a year old) wrapped up in a
shawl. I noticed that here one exposed arm was bandaged and dirty. As we
got closer the father shifted a little bit and the shawl fell away and
what I saw ripped out my heart. We immediately called the team medic
over to have a look and see what he could do. Apparently (found this out
through the interpreter) the little girl had fallen into a cooking fire
and had been burned (2nd & 3rd degree) along the left side of her body.
Her little arm was so badly burned that it curled behind the wrist. When
the medic and the other Dynacorp guy, M---- (civilian cop & paramedic),
cut not removed the bandages from her arm, the skin split open and
infectious puss came out like I have never seen. Her little arm bones
showed as well. As the medics tried to clean and redress her burns, her
weak little cries did not leave a dry eye among us. Most of us standing
there observing are dads and some of us have kids not much older than
the little girl I'm talking about. I know it affected me deeply. It was
the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen in my life. I walked over
to the truck where CPT D---, the PMT commander, had walked over to
collect himself (he's a dad too) and asked him if there was anyway that
we could get her medevaced out of there and stated the obvious that
she'd die otherwise. He said he didn't know so we both got on cellphones
and radios to get something in motion. I can't say exactly what it was
that motivated us to save this little girl at all costs but in my heart
I knew it was the right thing to do. We were finally able to get in
contact with higher (HQ) and were informed that a medevac bird was
enroute to the COP we had left to pick her up. After we convinced the
father that the Taliban (you have no idea what kind of animals they are)
wouldn't know that we had helped him, we loaded up and headed for the
COP. Enroute we heard via radio that the medevac had been rerouted and
that we had to ground evac her via truck so we did. We then heard over
the radio that the Aid Station where I am stationed couldn't treat her
and that we were to take her to the local Afghan Hospital. That didn't
sit right with us but orders are orders (we've since raised hell about
it). Once we arrived it was determined that the hospital there couldn't
do much more than stabilize her and that she'd have to go to Kabul. The
father said he couldn't afford to go to Kabul and let me tell you all of
us pulled out whatever money we had and gave it to him to help. The man
looked at us and said through the interpreter that he couldn't
understand why we would do that for him. I told him that this is what
our culture and our society does, because every life is precious,
especially that of a child. I guess it sounded weird coming from a bunch
of guys wearing body armor and armed to the teeth because the look of
disbelief never left his face. The hospital director then grabbed one of
his guys to take the father to a money changer to get the $ turned into
Afghanis (for safety purposes) and from there the father went back to
his village to get his wife while a midwife at the hospital watched over
the little girl. We then loaded back up in the trucks and went back to
my FOB where the ODA (Special Forces) medics had some better
anitbiotics, dressings, etc to take back to the hospital and help the
little girl out. The PMT guys then went back to the hospital to redress
her burns and give her the much needed anitbiotics and pain meds. I
stayed here at the FOB but I'm being kept up to date on her condition as
is the rest of the FOB. Word spreads like wildfire!
I just figured I'd pass this along. If I do nothing else the rest of
this deployment, then I feel that I have done at least one thing that
made a difference over here. I'm not sure how the little girl will fare
and what her life will be like, but I do know that we did something
right and good. I know I'll remember this for the rest of my life. See
the e-mail below from CPT D---and the attached pic of the little girl
after the PMT guys went back to the hospital and treated her again.
I love you all and I'll be home soon.
"Sgt. B"
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 12:29 AM
To: "Sgt. B" USA SGT USA CA
Subject: Next trip out
"Sgt. B",
I just realized that we didn't check out those wells or talk to the
people in M---. We'll do it next time. We should be going back there
on Saturday if you're interested.
We went back to the hospital and gave the little girl the meds and
an IV. She looked better or at least cleaner. We did give her something
for the pain, she actually smiled when it took effect. We will continue
to check up on her, I'll keep you posted.
Thanks to you and SGT K---for everything yesterday and today, you're
welcome with us anytime, J---- (CPT D---)
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
