MRAPs

I have talked briefly before about the vehicles that the Army designed and now uses out here to help minimize the serious damage that has been inflicted on our troops by IEDs and roadside bombs. These vehicles are called MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protective) and they come in several different sizes and missions. The common theme is that they have a "V" shaped hull to dispell the force of any explosion and are heavily armored to protect from direct fire as well.

Here is a picture of me showing off my newfound strength, that has come from working out every day while I'm deployed, by lifting up the front end of this MRAP.

Actually it was pretty impressive to see a tow-truck big enough to lift and tow one of these 30 ton (I've been told that's about what they weigh) behemoths. I jumped in to get the above picture when he had the front end up off the ground.

Below you can see one of the smaller models that we use as an ambulance in hostile territory (Capt Joey Bruner - Bioenvironmental guy from Kirtland AFB - seen in front).


As big as they are, with all of the armor on the shell, the interior of these things is pretty cramped. They can design them with seats for troop transport, with electronic equipment for other missions or with space for stretchers (as seen below) to care for the wounded.


If the interior is cramped, though, it is nothing compared to the "hatch" at the rear that is used to get in and out of these things. Usually that isn't a problem (with healthy soldiers going in and out), but it does make off-loading patients on stretchers a bit sporty.


As you've probably noticed from previous posts - Greg and I tend to meet a lot of people, many of whom are very willing to allow us entertaining diversions from the everyday life here at KRAB. When we first got here we decided that we "needed" to find someone to help us get behind the wheel and drive one of these things. We got our opportunity recently and really enjoyed the experience.
These are pictures that Greg took while I was driving. Try to imagine driving a combination of a semi-truck and a monster truck - then put it on steroids and give it armor and a turret gun! That's about what you have when you are behind the wheel of an MRAP.


Despite the weight and distribution of the armor (which makes it a bit top-heavy), it actually handles pretty well. Probably not great on gas mileage, though!

Shooting the Laser

I managed to get myself a recognition award (not by doing something "heroic in wartime" or anything like that - I answered a question correctly in a briefing) that allowed me to choose an incentive award from among a list of "cool things" that I wouldn't otherwise get to do. Among them were things like going on a helicoptor ride over the base, shooting a sniper rifle or playing combat golf. I chose to go out to the EOD (Explosive Ordinace Destruction) team compound and shoot the laser that they use to blow up roadside bombs and mines when the are able to identify them.

This MRAP is designed with the electronics inside to control the laser that is mounted in the rear.

Here is us looking down the range at the targets.

This thing is so powerful that they can melt designs into the concrete barriers around the base.

Here is the plaque that Col Overturf (base commander) had made from my target board.

Thirty-Something

Well, 09/09/09 was a notable day in the uniqueness of the numbers involved as well as in the fact that it was my 37th birthday. Everyone was bummed that I had to be in Iraq for such a big day and Nedra couldn't believe that they wouldn't send me home to celebrate. I told them that I would much rather spend my Birthday away from them than Christmas and they all agreed with me. It was OK, though, because we had our own way of celebrating 9/9/9 in Kirkuk and I had a great day (despite the fact that I was away from my family).

I started it off by running my first "official" marathon! It actually isn't very official in that I was the race sponsor, coordinator and only participant - at least for the full distance - but I named it the "First Annual KRAB Marathon."

I started at 0500 in the morning figuring it would take me around 4 hours to run. I divided the course up into 4 loops of 6.55 miles and scheduled myself to run each loop with a different running partner from my Unit.

Here is a picture of Col Mark White and me starting off in the morning - you can see that we both look completely awake :).

Capt Heidi Simpson ran the second loop with me and this is taken after that loop at the 1/2 way point. I was feeling pretty good at this time, but my partner for the next loop forgot his show time and I had to run it on my own. That turned out fine and it was actually my fastest split time - probably because I didn't spend any energy talking. I paid for it on the last loop, though, because by the time I came to the start of #4 (19.7 miles) I was feeling pretty spent. Fortunately I planned for this and had my best friend out here - Greg Stroup - scheduled to take me through the final stretch. We finished up pretty strong and here is our picture afterward.

You can see that my shirt is completely dry (as opposed to at the 1/2 way point). That is because the sun had come up and the temperature had climbed to over 100 degrees.

Also notice that a combined 50 years of formal education did not help us figure out that we had the "37" numbers backward until we looked at the picture later.

Unfortunately, in the end, the sponsor got cheap on us and we have no T-shirt to show for the effort, just these pictures! That's OK, we don't run for the T-shirt - we run because we are bored :).

Later on that day I opened Birthday packages from both Mom and Amber, which was a lot of fun. They contained some great treats along with pictures that the kids had drawn, which are now hanging on the wall next to my desk. Mom sent me 37 cinnamon bears and 37 candles with which to make myself a "cake."

We did this in the ER and the smoke alarms immediately started going off. Fortunately there were no automatic sprinklers and no patients in the facility at the time!

This picture is a bit blurry, but in it with me are Greg Stroup and Melissa Dooley - my good friends who came out here with me to Kirkuk and will leave with me in a couple of months.

Overall, I would have to say that it was a pretty good day - all things considered.

Labor Day Fun Run and MonteCarlo night on KRAB island

Labor Day was an enjoyable day here at the KRAB. We started it off with a fun run 10k - which 13 or so of our hospital squadron members participated in.

(Me, Melissa Dooley, John Ensell, Amber Kelly, Heidi Simpson, Mark White, Miranda Minshew, Alex Lee, Greg Stroup - Charlotte Shealy, Sara Wise, Tiffany Hubbard, Emily Eschbaucher)

Here are Levi and I getting ready to head out. The pack took off pretty darn quick - much faster than I felt like running, but I kept up with the herd and things thinned out pretty fast. I felt comfortable and ran faster than I was planning, ending up being the 1st Air Force member across the finish line (5th overall) with a time of 43 min 14 sec.

Later on that evening the Morale Committee hosted a "casino night" party on KRAB Island. Here is a picture of Matt Wright and Jared Sleeman that night.

No real money changed hands - since that is against the law in Iraq. We each got an alotment of chips at the start of the night to use as we saw fit. We ate dinner together and had Blackjack and Craps tables (Mark White, April Robinson, Michelle Childers, Karen Taylor in above pic, Kyra Bryant, Greg, Jamal Jones, April, Michelle in lower pic)-

a bar serving non-alcoholic margueritas (Capt Tiffany Hubbard and the COL in above pic, SSGT Kelly Shufeldt below),

and a Texas Hold-em poker tournament (Greg, Dave Lewis, Levi, Karen Taylor above; Karen, me and Sam Ortiz below).

Also included was a "pie in the face" fund raiser contest. Someone (not me!) contributed a bunch of money to see Greg Stroup get one in the face. He was a great sport about it and it was hilarious! Here are the action shots.

This is one of John Ensell that night helping one of our squadron members get rid of her cigarettes in an attempt to help her quit smoking.

It was a fun party and a good time was had by all!

Stress Shoot

The other day one of my friends from the civilian special ops side pulled me aside at lunch and invited me to come out to the firing range with him. He was setting up and validating a "stress shoot," which is a timed trial to see how accurate and fast operators are after a physical demand is placed on them to mimic the stress response of real life combat. It is similar to the winter games biathalons, where shooters ski between targets and time is added to their total for inaccurate shots.


We were using the HK416, which is essentially a modified M16. Here is a picture that I have posted previously of me shooting this weapon.


Anyway, so they set up the course so that you started by dragging a sled with 150 lbs on it 75 meters up the hill, then ran 50 meters to a spot where you would lie down and fire 6 shots from the prone position at two targets 100 meters away. The "A-zone" is a 6x8 inch square in the center mass of the target, and hits in this area did not add time to your total. The B-zone is an additional 2 inches around the A-zone, and C-zone an additional 2 inches around that. Time penalties are an additional 5 seconds for B shots, 10 sec for C shots, and 15 sec for complete misses of the target.

After the prone firing position, you moved forward 25 meters for 6 shots from a kneeling position at targets 75 meters away, then up to the 50 meter mark for 6 shots standing, then up to 25 meters where you took 6 shots while moving forward. Once you got to the 15 meter mark you switched to the 9 mm pistol and engaged 6 targets, 2 shots each. After holstering the pistol you went back to the 25 meter mark for 6 more shots, then to the 50 for 6, to the 75 for 6 and then ran to the starting spot to finish.

I had a few problems loading/reloading my weapon during the course, so I had a bunch of wasted time there - but I ran it in just under 6 minutes. My accuracy was pretty decent (relatively) and added only a combined 1:30 to my time, so my total score was a 7:27. I felt pretty good about that, especially the next day when my friend told me that I did better than some of the guys in their outfit (who are paid to do this kind of thing).

I really enjoyed the opportunity to get out there and engage some targets while simulating some of the real life stress experienced in combat.

Synchronized swimming routine

One of the "events" here at Kirkuk to look forward to is the base-wide talent show on the last Saturday of every month. After attending a couple and seeing some great acts, it has become part of our monthly routine. There is a kid that can do the most incredible "beat-box" routine that I have ever heard. This last show he did the song "Low Rider" with all of the sounds, beats, and vocals at the same time! I wish I had a video of him!

There is another kid that can dance like you wouldn't believe. He does a perfect Micheal Jackson impersonation and last show did some moonwalking on his knees!

Anyway, there are a lot of people with real talent, but I'm not one of them - or at least the small amount of surgical talent I have managed to aquired doesn't lend itself to display in this type of a setting. So I did some thinking and remembered a sychronized swim routine that was originally done at a Church talent show (Summit Ward) and posted on YouTube. I talked to Amber, who agreed to send out some props, and I put together a "crack(head?) team" of guys who thought it would be a lot of fun to do.

After a fair amount of film watching, choreography and practice we managed to put together a pretty funny show. Here we are getting ready for the "dress rehearsal" the morning before the show.

Here is Levi (Sundermeyer - FP doc from Eglin) giving his usual gang signs.

And here is Alex (Lee - FP doc from Ramstein)

Magnum (Macrae - support SSgt from Eglin) presented a problem because of his size. We could barely fit the shirt over his shoulders and the swim cap was so tight on his head that it gave him a headache. The goggles were the worst, though, because the distance between his eyes is so much larger than the goggles that the edge would dig into the middle of his eyeball! Even with modification he had to leave them on his forehead for the performance.

The performance went off better than we expected. Here is a copy of it (filmed by our BioHealth guy Capt Joey Bruner and edited/finalized by Col Mark White on his MacBook).

As you see in the video, the crowd went wild and we were instant celebrities! It has been fun to see people in the dining hall or somewhere else since then and have them recognize us and say how much they enjoyed the routine! They say everyone has their 5 minutes of fame - I suppose this would be mine.

Work Conditions

It has been well documented, both by me and by previous surgeons, that we are completely underutilized here at this location. Although that is always a good sign for the troops around us it does give one the sense that their time could be better spent in other ways (or at least in other locations). The trauma location at Bagram does more on a daily basis than I have cumulatively over the 3+ months I have been here - having only 2 orthopedic surgeons there they could really use the extra help. But the wheels of beaurocracy roll very slowly and it doesn't look like they will be able to reassign me somewhere where I would be more useful, so we do what we can to help the time pass. This blog is part of that process.

I thought it would be interesting to show some pictures of my office and some random stuff around our EMEDs unit. Below you can see the space that multitasks as an office/ clinic/ warehouse/ ICU (if we had some really sick patients).


A close up of my workspace shows my countdown calendar as well as pictures and letters from the kids on the wall.


And here is a picture of my desk. I change the desktop background picture on my computer once a week and you can see that the week I took this picture was a "Clara week" for the background.


Here is one of Greg at his desk, hard at work (as usual :). I enjoy sharing an office with him, due in a large part to the fact that we have very similar interests and have a lot to talk about in the times that we spend in the office (since neither of us have a lot of patient care to do). It is no surprise that some people have a hard time figuring out which of us is which. We are both the same height, same build, incredibly handsome (obviously) and talented. We are also both supremely humble (me more than him :).

In all seriousness, I feel extremely well blessed to have two roommates (Greg and Levi, and Glen before Levi) that are family men of good character, enjoyable to be with and who are committed to working to live Christlike lives. We have a great time "working" together and spend most of every day, from our morning runs to our evening card games, hanging out as a group. Here is one of us at the KRAB island signpost showing how far it is to our repective bases.


There was a while where we were watching an episode or two of MASH every day to pass the time, and here is one of me (and a patient in the MSU) during our MASH time.


The extra time also lends itself to many time consuming projects to "better our environment." Here is one of the crew hammering the decking down for the pool area (with a 3 foot wading pool) that we constructed behind the EMEDS.

All in all I would have to say that things are pretty good here - and they could certainly be a lot worse! I've got great people to be with, we find activities to occupy our attention and pass the time, and the food is pretty decent (I'll get a picture of the dining facility in here later). The only true hardship is the separation from family, and fortunately we have the phone, email and Skype to better keep in contact while I'm away. Even with all of that technological help and as good as things are, I'll be glad to put this deployment behind me in another three months!