An afternoon with special forces

Given the nature of our mission in the hospital, we see a quite a few injured people. Often they are locals or Afghan military, but sometimes they are US soldiers. One of the more active groups here on the FOB is special forces. They have the occasion, quite frequently, to visit the hospital with injured enemy or buddies and use our surgical services, typically in the middle of the night. So seeing these guys as often as we do, we get to know some of them pretty well.

Every now and then we are invited to go out with them and blow stuff up.

Nate and I pose for the camera before the action begins.

This is one of the trucks they drive and was the one I rode in this day. The truck is loaded with toys, both inside and out.

So, I really did not think that after going through med school, I'd ever have the chance to hold a block of C4 explosive, but here I am! They showed me how to cut a wedge out of the end, embed detonation wire, and tape it up for use.

The guys are explaining how to tie the ring of detonation wire so that all 6 of our blocks of C4 will explode simultaneously.

Robyn and Derek are working on their blocks.

Our work is surveyed by our "instructor" for the day.

The rest of the group also checks over the placement of the blocks. As you can see, the SF guys can pretty much wear what they want, so they usually wear civilian clothes.

Not to waste any explosive, 3 pounds of C4 is molded into a shape charge and placed in front of this iron plate. The iron plate is about 1 cm thick. This charge is linked to the other 6 blocks, giving us about 12 pounds of C4!

Rich calls to the command post to inform them of our impending explosion. The people in charge probably wouldn't appreciate any large unannounced blasts. We set the fuse, which ignites the detonation cord. Since the det cord burns at a controlled rate, we have a set number of minutes to drive to our observation point.

After we blow a hole in the side of the mountain, we return to check the damage.







I would say the shape charge did its job.

But the fun is not over quite yet. I am holding a grenade I am about to throw over the side of the hill. Like I said, all kinds of toys in the trucks...

Get down! You can see the grenade over my head as I am falling to the ground.




After all the festivities, we join the guys back at their "SF compound" and are treated to a cook out. They built this bar area for themselves in their spare time.

Usually on Sunday nights they have one of these get togethers and light up the grill. You can pretty much see all the people who go around the base in civilian clothes and beards---SF, CIA, and FBI.

The best part is just getting to eat somewhere besides the dining facility once in a while!

"Small arms range---going hot"

Before I get to the small arms range, I would like to take one moment to try to explain how dark it is here at night. You see, because of the maniacs up in the caves nearby, we can't have any lights on at night here. We all walk around using our red, green, or blue lights at night to see. White lights aren't allowed, as they can be seen from too far away. Now this makes for some excellent stargazing, just look up and you can see shooting stars, satellites, and the Milky Way galaxy clearly. However, it can be hazardous at times. This is the view I see when I step out of the hospital at night. The other night, while not using my light and thinking I knew where I was, I walked right into a tree. Not a little branch on my shoulder or something, I walked straight into the trunk! I felt real smart...turned on my light after that.

Robyn is sporting her new Navy PT attire she bought. She likes wearing the clothing of various services and confusing everyone. We let her get away with it and call her our mascot.

On this day we had some fun away from the hospital. The Army, unlike the Air Force, believes that if you are carrying around weapons, you are doing it for a purpose, and should the opportunity arise, you better be able to use that weapon. So every 2 or 3 weeks, you visit the firing range.

The range has 10 firing stations. The sandbags are located 25 meters from the targets.

Placed on each target is a sheet of paper with a silhouette of a person. That is the little black spot in the middle of the papers hanging. This represents a person 300 meters away.

Before we start, our group loads up about 2000 rounds of ammo.

I'm ready to shoot something! A loud voice transmits over the base intercom: "Attention on the FOB, small arms range--going hot." This lets people know why there are machine guns firing like crazy at the perimeter of the base.

With the barrels resting on the sandbags, we are firing at our targets with the lowest possible profile.
I look through the site, breathe in, breathe out, and squeeze slowly. This minimizes how much you move your weapon and increases accuracy.

My friend to my right let me know afterward that it was hard for him to concentrate on his target because my M-16 was ejecting shell casings all over him. Ha.

After going through several rounds of shooting, checking target, adjusting site, and shooting again, the weapon becomes "zeroed" and we begin to see better and better results on target.

My target. You can see my first 3 attempts (which were 3 shots each) low and to the right. My next 2 attempts were better, but not perfect. Unfortunately, at this point a trauma alert was heard over the loud speaker, so essential medical personnel had to go back to the hospital. We had to miss the majority of shooting, and getting to shoot the M-16 in burst mode. But they promised me we could come back soon. I will hold them to it!

Seeya next post.

Who Lives at FOB Salerno

I would like to explain who lives here at FOB Salerno, and some history of one of the Army units. There are many different populations of people here. There are civilian local nationals who work on the base and civilian US personnel who work for KBR, which is a subsidiary of Haliburton. KBR handles many functions such as food service, laundry, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, construction, sanitation, firefighting, computer networking, and many other behind the scenes activities. The company, and all of its employees, are extremely well paid by our tax dollars. There are also CIA personnel and US DOD civilians who work here in various capacities.

There are a variety of Afghani military and police forces who are based here, or frequently visit. You have the Afghan police, the Afghan National Army (ANA), Afghan Border Patrol, Khost Provincial Forces (KPF), and Afghan commandos, who are Afghan special forces.

As far as military personnel, there are a variety of special forces, including Army special forces, Delta force, and I also believe Army Rangers. All three of these forces are independent and they don’t like mingling with each other. The various special forces usually have medics attached, so we get to interact with them occasionally.

There are also quite a few Air Force personnel on base, mostly medical, but also some special forces. These guys go out and find the enemy, then guide Air Force jets in air to ground strikes. There are a few Navy people, and a few Marines.

The vast majority of personnel here however are Army soldiers who belong to the 101st Airborne, headquartered in Fort Campbell, KY. There is an air assault aviation brigade here, utilizing the attack helicopters Kiowa and Apache, and the transport helicopters Blackhawk and Chinook. Most of the soldiers belong to the 4th Brigade Combat Team 506th Infantry Regiment.

The 101st Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" patch

Following is a brief history of the 506th Infantry Regiment copied from globalsecurity.org.

The mission of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division is to, when directed, rapidly deploy by air, land, or sea to conduct full spectrum operations in support of the Regional Combatant Commander's Requirements.

The 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was activated on 20 July 1942 at Mount Currahee, Camp Toccoa, Georgia, as part of the newly formed 101st Airborne Division. Currahee was a Cherokee Indian word meaning "Stands Alone," a phrase which later became the Regiment's motto. Led by their Regimental Commander, COL Robert F. Sink, the Regiment conducted a 137-mile forced march from Camp Toccoa to Fort Benning to begin Airborne training. They were the first Parachute Infantry Regiment to complete Airborne training as a unit. The 506th Infantry was the sixth parachute regiment constituted in the US Army.

The 506th Infantry Regiment motto: "CURRAHEE STANDS ALONE"

Their training continued in England until 5 June, 1944 when the 506th suited up for a different kind of parachute jump. At 0100 hours, 6 June 1944, the Regiment jumped into the skies over France as the lead element of the massive Allied D-Day invasion. Their objective was to seize the high ground immediately behind the Normandy beach. By the evening of 6 June 1944, the Regiment had secured its objectives, and had linked up with other elements of the invasion force who had established a beachhead at Normandy. For its exploits at Normandy, the 506th Infantry Regiment received a Presidential Unit Citation, and 25 of its members received the Distinguished Service Cross.

Currahee is also well known for the book and HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers”, the story of Easy Company in the 506th Infantry Regiment during D-Day and battles afterward. So the Army division here definitely has a rich tradition.

These are the guys who go "outside the wire" everyday risking their lives. This is about as close as I can get to the edge of the FOB.

Beyond this fence line you no longer have the protection of the base. Sometimes I feel a little guilty that I am not one of the ones venturing out into the mountains, that I always have the protection of the base and therefore a lot less risk. In fact there is a slang term for people like me who never leave the FOB: "Fobbitt."

As an Air Force person living on base, you just don't feel quite as tough as those Army guys leaving the base in their armored vehicles with top mounted 50 cals.






It's all good though; we understand our role is critical, and our being here and ready 24/7 gives those guys security when bad things happen.

Colonel M and Capt G (anesthesia CRNA's-the two left) prepare to intubate a person with a severely burned face from combat.






Trauma sustained to armpit. Femoral vein was grafted to brachial artery to save the arm.

We are also here to take care of emergencies in the local civilian population. I can show this cute baby because her story has already been published in the US media. She is a 9 month old who came in with 3rd degree burns to her legs and feet. We took skin grafts from her thighs and transferred to the burned areas. She recovered well after 3 weeks and went home with her mom.

That's all for this post, I'll try not to wait so long before I post again. Thanks for visiting!

Down Time in the Desert

What I will try to do here is give a little tour of Salerno. These are some of our rooms. I walk past this tree every morning going to the shower, which is about 200 feet from my room. I call it the bird tree, because I swear at least 200 birds live in it. I guess there's not that much choice of good trees around, so they can't be picky.

Here is the chapel. They have different style services (Catholic, Protestant, LDS, etc) here at various times during the week.

Trevor and Jerry are standing on a volleyball court in front of the gym in the background. The gym is in that big tent and has a good selection of free weights, machines, and cardio equipment.

These are the docs at the hospital from left: orthopedic surgeon, (me--anesthesiologist), general surgeon, general surgeon, internal medicine.

This is looking over towards where a patient would be wheeled on a litter from where the helicopters land.

Being the capitalists we are, we have a bazaar set up on base and let the local nationals come and sell their goods. While there are a lot of neat places selling afghans, rugs, scarfs, and stones, not everything is genuine Afghan product. You can see the Blockbuster sign in this photo where pirated movies are sold. These are all made here in Asia and almost anything can be found for around $2. I'm not really into that, but some people are.

You can also get a nice cup of hot tea at the bazaar in your down time.

Speaking of hot drinks, why not have some coffee and read out in the sun, something you definitely don't get enough of in England!

And while we're killing time, why not do a hand stand. I mean what else are you going to do for 12 hours of sitting around?

After we're done doing handstands, we head off to the gym to start lifting as much weight as we possibly can until our bodies hurt.

This is my crew I always work out with, Jerry and Trevor, and Robyn, the ortho surgeon.

This particular night was pizza night......in the operating room. Here you can see our buffet line where you can pick your toppings before you cook you pizza.

After you are done picking your toppings for your pizza, you hand it to the chef (one of our scrub techs) and get it cooked. Now, we don't exactly have ovens in the hospital, but we do have intrument sterilizers! Through trial and error, 350 degrees at 20 PSI pressure for 15 minutes seems to get the job done.

Yes the last couple of weeks have pretty low key and relaxed here. Life has been pretty good, but is getting a little interesting in the last few days. Bagram Air Base, the large AF base in country here, has only 1 runway, and this runway serves the military for the entire country, at least for the big cargo jets. Last week the runway was down because this C-17 Globemaster crash landed with no landing gears. They had to fly in a crane from the US to lift it. Therefore, all the mail going out to the FOB's stopped. No mail!


Otherwise, everything is good, and until the weather warms up, the action might be a little slow around here. So I'll just keep drinking coffee, enjoying the sun, and waiting for the next adventure. I will post again soon, seeya later!