Reading

I’ve found that I have lots of time to read and I love it.  I’ve decided that I really enjoy reading.  I now have a Kindle and really like it.  Anyway here’s a list of the books that I’ve read since I left home:

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton.  I read this one before but one of the other guys was reading it so I decided to read it again.  The movie “The Thirteenth Warrior” with Antonio Banderes is based on this book.

Congo, by Michael Crichton.  I believe this was one of his first books written in the late 70’s or early 80’s before computers were really mainstream.  It was cutting edge when he wrote it.  This book was also made into a really bad movie, that I haven’t seen, by the same name.

Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne.  This book is about the rise and fall of the Comanche and the story of Quanah Parker who was a young girl that was kidnapped by the Comanche and ended up the wife of one of their great chiefs.  She was eventually recaptured and brought back to “civilization”, which she hated.  Very Dances with Wolves.  The writing gets a little long a repetitive in some parts.

Hell in a Very Small Place – The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, written by Bernard B Fall.  This book was written in the early 60’s, just after the French lost Indochina and before the complete US involvement in Viet Nam.  Very thorough and very long in some parts.  It’s interesting to see what part the politics of the time played in the fate of the 10,000 dead during this month long siege.  I can’t help but ask myself if their sacrifice was worth it.

Corsair, by Clive Cussler.  An OK international intrigue kind of book.  A little far-fetched and the heros’ daring-do and their equipment is a little over the top – one of the guys has a prosthetic foot that’s like a swiss army knife of military weaponry.  He always has the right tool for the situation.  This author wrote the book that’s the inspiration for the movie “Sahara”, which I really liked.

The Social Animal, by David Brooks.  Very interesting book that basically describes how our conscious mind is only the surface of who we are and that our subconscious mind is much more important.  He describes his hypothesis by telling the story of two people – describing their parents, their birth and childhood, etc. all the way until their death.  A small excerpt:

…when you praise a student for working hard, it reinforces his identity as an industrious soul.  A student in this frame of mind is willing to take on challenging tasks, and to view mistakes as part of the working process.  When you praise a student for being smart, on the other hand, it conveys the impression that achievement is an inborn trait.  Students in that frame of mind want to continue to appear smart.  They’re less likely to try challenging things because they don’t want to make mistakes and appear stupid.

I haven’t read many of this type of book and I thought it was very interesting.

Unbroken:  A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand.  This is the amazing true story of Olympic runner Louie Zamperini.  He set a high school track record in California in 1934 by running the mile in 4 minutes and 21 seconds.  He couldn’t make the 1936 Olympic team in the mile but made it in the 5000 meter distance after only competing in four 5000 meter races.  He nearly won the Olympic qualifier final (the race was so close they initially announced that he had won).  Anyway, everyone thought he would break the 4 minute mile barrier, but World War II intervened and he became a navigator in the Pacific.  His plane goes down and he ends up in a Japanese POW camp…  Very good book with a very uplifting ending.

Currently reading The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson.  So far it’s pretty weird and disjointed.  I’m hoping that everything comes together at the end.  I found this one on a list of a couple thousand books that someone gave me for the Kindle.  The author also wrote The Men Who Stare at Goats which is the basis for the movie by the same name.  A good quote from this book:  “…I thought about my own overanxious brain, my own sort of madness.  Was it a more powerful engine in my life than my rationality?”

I’ve also read parts of Eric Clapton (biography) which started out too slow and Ratification, the People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, by Pauline Maier.  Very good history, but exceptionally dry.  You just kind of assume the Constitution came into being like you learn in the fourth grade, when actually it was a very divisive document that nearly didn’t make it.

If anyone has read any good books lately, let me know - I've got time.

Laundry

The laundry system here, if nothing else, is efficient.  You have this woven white bag into which you put all of your dirty laundry.  There’s really no need to sort things as everything is basically the same – browns and greens with some white socks.  You tie your strings into a knot with your nametag sticking out of the end of the bag.  You then take your bag to this little hut and throw it into the bin with everyone else’s dirty laundry bags and sign your name in on the register.  The laundry can be done in as little as twelve hours, but I usually pick it up the next day.   The clean bags are placed on shelves in the same little hut where you dropped it off.  You pick up your bag and sign off in the register that you picked it up.

Some keys to the laundry:

-          They don’t open the bag and put your clothes in the laundry, they just throw the bag into the washing machine with everyone else’s bag and then throw them in the dryer.  There is an art to getting just the right amount and combination of clothes into the bag.  Too many clothes and the whole bag is still wet when you pick it up.  Too few clothes and you have to keep going back.

-          Right after I got here, I was able to score a second white bag.  This allows me to put more clothes into the laundry at the same time, yet still get them dried.

-          When you wash your uniforms, which are big and bulky, it’s key to put in a couple of other clothes so they come back just a little wet.  That way you can hang them and some of the wrinkles come out.  Otherwise, they get dried into a big ball and look like you just slept in it.

-          I’ve gotten to the point that I can recognize my bags on the shelf without having to search for my name.  Some people have colored tags that they’ve attached to their bag or colored strings that they’ve woven into their mesh.  However, you get to the point that you recognize your knots or the way your bag looks without any of those markers.

-          Eventually everything turns a dusty grey color.  You can definitely tell the older bags on the shelves from those that have just been issued.  You can see the grey in all of the whites.  When my wife sent me some new white pillow cases about 4 weeks after being here, they were blinding.

-          The workers tie a small string around the neck of your bag before they put it into the laundry so there is no way things can fall out and get lost.  There have been several injuries from people using their issued Gerber knives while opening these small strings – to the point where we were warned at one of our doctor’s meetings to be careful with the laundry bag opening technique.  I use my little scissors to avoid any injury.

-          You can pay some money to have your laundry “ironed” if you would like. (The laundry service itself is free).  I have not taken advantage of this opportunity yet, but supposedly this ensures that your stuff will come back dry.

-          There is no limit on the amount of laundry you can do, so I do it about every other day.  This decreases the amount of clothing I actually need and I’ve noticed a significant change in the color of my uniforms that get cycled through the laundry compared to the ones still hanging in my closet.

Laundry before...

Laundry after...

All in all I think it’s a great system.  Very efficient and simple to use and don’t see why we can’t implement it when I get home…

Four Weeks

My blog was turned off for a little while – not sure why.  I’m going to post a small message just to make sure it works.  If it does, I’ll load some more pictures and stuff later.

Well I’ve been here for four weeks now and things have settled into a groove.  Hopefully my blog is back up and running.  I work 24 hours on and then 24 hours off.  My “on” days I spend pretty much at the hospital with breaks for lunch and dinner.  There are various meetings to go to and few administrative things to take care of, but mostly I just do radiology.  Some days are busy and I work all day, some days are really slow and I read a lot.  We usually get the Stars and Stripes newspaper a day late, so I do the crossword, the Sudoku, the word jumble and sometimes the Cryptiquote.  I’m on call through the night, but usually get some sleep.  I probably shouldn’t say much about what I actually do, but don’t be fooled by the lack of media attention.   People are definitely being severely wounded and being killed over here.

I kind of have a routine for my days off as well.  I have to be at the hospital in the morning in order to exchange the primary bleep for the secondary bleep (the Brits call the beepers “bleeps”).  Usually pick up a load of laundry at the laundry facility then go back to my room and change in to PT gear.  Then I go to the gym to workout – usually cardio stuff in the morning.  Come back, shower and watch an episode of a TV show (currently on the first season of AMC’s The Walking Dead) or a movie then walk over to Leatherneck to eat at the American dining facility for lunch.  Check in at work after lunch to make sure no one needs help with anything, then back to my room for some reading and a nap.  About 4:30 go back to the hospital and see what’s going on and then back to Leatherneck for dinner.  After dinner I go work out again – currently pull-ups and some kind of pushup routine.  There’s a hospital meeting for the doctors in the evening and then we usually watch a movie in the doctor’s lounge after that.

I usually e-mail somewhere in there every day and sometimes call home.  That’s about it.  It’s like a two day ground hog day sequence.  The only day that’s any different is Sunday.   I’m off every other Sunday and don’t work out on that day.  I also go to Church the Sunday I’m off.  The weather is usually the same – sunny, but not too hot.  We’re in the desert so it’s pretty dry.  It reminds me of Colorado in the summertime.   I guess it will get really cold in the winter, but you still sweat a little when you walk over to Leatherneck for meals.  It has only sprinkled twice.

I’ll post this today and see what happens to the blog.  If it’s still up, I’ll write more later.

First Impressions of Bastion (11 Oct)

It’s dark.  There is pretty good light discipline.  The base is huge.  We must have driven for 15 minutes on the buses, making several different turns until we got from the flight line to our temporary housing.  There is a constant noise everywhere.  The flight line must be busy all of the time.  There are always planes and helicopters buzzing around, so there is a constant dull roar.  I think we should be used to that quickly.  The temperature is perfect, must be 75 degrees tonight and just a touch humid.  There is a constant feeling of dust in the air, almost like a grit in your teeth.  It doesn’t look dusty, but it feels dusty.  I haven’t seen the hospital or any of the other facilities yet, though I’m starving right now even though it is 1245am.  It took us just over 28 hours to get here.  Breakfast tomorrow is from 5:30 to 8:00 and our first formation is at 10:00.  Hopefully I will be able to sleep with my head cold.

Current living conditions...

Yes, I think those cots are surplus from WWII

Movement (9-11 October)

We started out Sunday morning by turning in our two bags that we wanted to go with us.  We had to weigh each one individually.  Then an hour later we had to turn in the two bags that may not show up for quite a while.  We also had to weigh each of those individually.  We then cleared out our barracks and went to lunch.  After lunch we went to the York Minster for a pre-deployment religious ceremony.  It was nice.  The building is amazing.  We got back, had about an hour of free time, then onto buses for a four hour trip to somewhere in England.  Classic Army, we got there at 10:30 pm but the place didn’t open until 11.  The bus drivers wouldn’t wait, so we hung out in the parking lot for half an hour.  It was cold, but luckily not raining.  We unloaded all of our bags from the transport truck and then checked them in.  They took us to breakfast at about 1:30am.  We then got onto another bus for a half hour bus ride to Mildenhall air force base, where we boarded a flight to the middle east.  7 hours flying time, packed like lemmings.  I have a small head cold, so it was miserable.

The Army is big on “movement”.  You can be court martialed if you “miss movement”.  So there was a lot of yelling and screaming at everyone to make sure they knew where they were going and what time they had to be there.  It’s kind of frustrating as they treat us like four year olds.  It works, I guess.  We’re all here.  Our next flight will take us directly into Bastion which is nice.

Arrived in the Middle East.  We only waited about two hours which I guess is exceptionally fast.  Other people that have deployed, had to wait in various places for days sometimes.  They say that they are quick moving you in, but that it takes forever to move you out.  I guess we’ll see.  We were waiting in a welcome shed with air conditioning, pop, water and snacks.   Then suddenly they said to grab our stuff as we were loading in five minutes.  They asked for Majors and above and senior enlisted people to go to the front of the line.  I normally don’t take advantage of that, but I had been warned beforehand to get on the plane early.  It turns out I was able to sit on the side of the plane, with lots of leg room while the people in “coach” were packed together really tight.  We flew a couple of hours, then they told us to get our flack jackets on and helmets.  They turned off all of the lights and we did a rapid descent into camp Bastion.  Quick and easy.  We deplaned, waited for all of our bags which was also a cluster, then packed them onto trucks and buses.  We then were taken to our temporary housing.  10 man tents, but not too bad.  The showers have constantly running, hot water, no more pushing the button.  The toilets are metal without a toilet seat, much like the ones you see in prison.  It takes a little balancing, and you can’t be asleep.

Minster in Strensall England where we attended predeployment ceremony

Finding my bag in a sea of bags before heading out

It's finally time to start getting ready for why they sent me here...

Queen Elizabeth’s Barracks, Strensall England. 1 October 2011

Long flight to England, although straight from Atlanta to London.  We had to wait a while for all of our military bags to deplane and then we had to go through customs with our weapons.  Like most of us, I had three full duffel bags and my backpack.  They actually had everything pretty well organized and we got out of the airport after about 3 hours.  The bus ride from London to Strensall (near York) took about 4 and a half hours.  While on the bus ride our Navy liaison gave us some of the low down on the place we are going in Afghanistan.  It was a little eye opening.  After hearing everything he had to say I was a little overwhelmed.

We’ve been here about a week now just training with the 208^th Field Hospital.  Our training is designed to replicate almost exactly what we have down there so that when we get there we will already have a pretty good idea of where things are and how our patients are supposed to move through the facility.  Apparently we are going to a very busy trauma hospital.  It has all been very intimidating.  After this week’s training however, and getting the chance to speak with some radiologists who are there, I feel much better.  The anticipation is building along with the fear that I may not be up to the job…

The accommodations here are horrible.  Slightly worse than at Ft Benning.  Four man rooms with only two showers and three toilets for about 40 guys.  The showers operate with a single push button that gives you about 8 seconds of scalding hot water.  The beds are metal frames with springs and about a two inch mattress.  Very sway back.  I have not been able to sleep on my stomach for two weeks now.

One of four in the room at QEB

The food is a little different but not bad.  There are a few odd things such as baked beans for breakfast.  Their bacon is more ham slice than ours.  Their toast is liked deep fried bread.  We do have scrambled eggs and blood pudding.  We also have some Frosted Flakes if you get there early enough.  Fish and chips downtown has been very good.  Their salty food is not quite salty enough and their sweet food is also not quite sweet enough.  Everyone describes everything as a little bland.

The days have not been very strenuous as far as timeline goes.  First formation is at 0745 and we have been done about 1600 every day.  It’s a short walk to our training facility or they shuttle us over.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful since we’ve been here.

Saturday a couple of us went and saw Leeds United play against Portsmouth in a Champion’s League soccer game.  It was good but not great.  Leeds won 1-0 on a nice goal.  The field was immaculate.  I have been able to work out more this week, including some soccer.

I miss home.

CRC (17 Sep - 24 Sep)

CONUS Replacement Center, Ft Benning GA.  Arrived on Saturday afternoon.  Checked in and was given a number as well as a health care provider badge.   Got a room assignment.  Had to get linens – pillow case, two sheets, plastic pillow and scratchy, green, wool army blanket.  Went to my room – four man room, two bunk beds and four wall lockers.  Very small.  Beds were about 4 inches of foam on a spring frame.  They sagged pretty well in the middle.  Soon after I got there, I had two roommates show up.  One, an internal medicine doctor going with me to Afghanistan, the other a preventative medicine doc going to Djibuti on a Civil Affairs deployment.  Who knew we had people in Djibuti or on the horn of Africa?  Both very nice guys.  The internal medicine doc had a friend off post, so he spent each night there instead of in our little hostel and the other doc didn’t snore.  It turned out okay.  The bathrooms and showers were communal, which took a little getting used to.

The overall mission of the CRC is to make sure that each individual replacement has all of the boxes checked before they get deployed to wherever they are going.  For example, shots, medical review, dental review, hearing, issue of equipment, wills, lectures on IED’s etc.  Since I had done most of those things at Ft. Hood before I left, I didn’t have to do much.  I still had to go wait in all of the lines, but when I got to the front, I would just show them my paperwork or they would look me up on the computer and I would be done.  So basically it was a lot of waiting in lines and waiting around.  Typical Army.  I brought a book most places to help keep myself entertained.  The one thing I didn’t get issued at Ft Hood was my weapon, so I was issued a 9mm Beretta pistol which they kept locked in the armory along with everyone else’s weapon.  I also had to qualify on the weapon, which basically meant that I had to hit a certain number of pop up targets with a certain number of rounds.  It was actually pretty fun, until you think of why we were doing it.  However, if I’m ever pointing my weapon at someone with my feet shoulder width apart, slightly bent at the knees, arms extended, trying to aim… then we’re in a lot of trouble.

The food at the CRC was okay.  Cafeteria food, but lots of it.  They had some kind of meat for every meal, usually with potatoes or rice and some vegetable.  Basically right up my alley.  They also had a small salad bar, soda, juice, milk and dessert.  It wasn’t bad, but they only had about four different meals which they cycled through while we were there.

I didn’t get to work out that much.  A little running and a little basketball.

In the end, they were very efficient at their job and got a lot of us through the process and on our planes to England without much problem.

Good-bye (17 Sep)

Currently on a flight from Austin to Atlanta.  From there it’s on to the CRC.  I can’t believe I’m here.  It really doesn’t seem real.  7 months.  Saying goodbye at the airport was miserable.  The whole family was there and we were all blubbering in front of the security checkpoint.  Hayden wasn’t sure what was going on.  I already miss my family so much.  I don’t think there will be anytime that I will ever feel comfortable for the next several months.  This is miserable.

OPSEC

I've been keeping a sort of journal at the beginning of my trip.  I haven't had great internet access so haven't been able to keep up with the blog.  I'm posting several entries today that I actually wrote over the last two weeks.  I've also got kind of a quandry on what to write.  The old adage that "loose lips sinks ships" applies.  I have to leave out a lot of details that I would really like to give and may actually be giving too much information.  Anyway if there is something in particular you want to know e-mail me...

Prologue

So why 61Romeo?  61Romeo (61R) is the Army's designation for my Military Occupational Specialty (MOS).  So my MOS is 61R which is an Army radiologist.  It allows them to plug me into any slot designated for a radiologist.  The 10th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) needed a radiologist and my name somehow fell out on the list that was generated.  Actually it was a little more complicated than that, but not much.  I also have a secondary MOS which is a 62Bravo (62B).  62B is a General Medical Officer.  I served as a GMO when we were in Belgium, before my residency.

I've started this blog to keep in touch with friends and family and let everyone know what I'm doing while deployed to Afghanistan.  I leave in 7 days and will be gone for about 7 months.  I'll leave here and go to Ft Benning, GA for a week of training in the CONUS Replacement Center (CRC).  I'll then go to England for about 2 weeks for more training with a British hospital unit and then on to Afghanistan.  I'm assigned to the 10th CSH, but will actually an individual replacement in a British Hospital in Helmand province.  I will be in a different location than the 10th CSH proper along with about 10-20 other US health care providers.  I actually know very few other details about what the next few weeks hold in store...

I've received tons of equipment in preparation for deployment.  Much more than I can ever bring with me.  I been injected with small pox and anthrax and got a flu shot and tetanus shot, all on the same day.  My arms are still sore.  My teeth, hearing and eyesight have been checked and I've done my baseline traumatic brain injury testing.  All of the boxes are being checked.  I've also done online training on sexual harrassment, suicide prevention and how to report enemy troop movements.  All stuff that's important to someone I'm sure.

I'm getting a little ancy.  I'm not at all worried about my safety.  The place I'm going hasn't seen any rockets or mortars for over a year.  I'm most worried about doing my job well and being an asset to the hospital and sick and wounded depending on us/me.  Mostly I'm going to miss home and everything about it...