PT Test (Diagnostic) Of the New Soldiers

Monthly Sensitive Inventory (SGT Guevarra)

SSG Moran just chilling

and Others

The Stairway to Heaven Mosque is completed

Beautiful Morning at COB Speicher

Fresh Faces

PFC Nelson PMCS the RG-31

SGT Mueller Sweeps the hallway

Checking out the Bridge

The Maintenance Crew (SGT Spinale, SGT Spaid and SPC Harvey) fix the RG 31 with SGT Ariola

SSG Moran being cool

the Bridge

SGT Ariola trying to learn the trick of the Superstars

Fueler

US Combat Hospital Saving More Wounded Iraqis

BALAD, Iraq (AP) — The U.S. military's main combat hospital in Iraq has increasingly switched to helping Iraqis. As the numbers of wounded American soldiers have fallen, the hospital is now saving the lives of a remarkable 93 percent of Iraqis who come with devastating injuries.

It's another sign of the radical improvements in health care made at combat trauma care units in war time — especially because unlike U.S. soldiers, most Iraqi patients at the Air Force Theater Hospital don't wear body armor and helmets or drive in vehicles designed to withstand roadside bombs.

"There are people with injuries that are brought here, and I say this with confidence, if they went anywhere else in the world, they would not survive," said Col. Mark Mavity, the commander of the hospital.

On one recent day, 5-year-old Sajad Lafta lay in his bed crying for his father while his older half brother, Abdul Wahid, tried to comfort him by holding up a picture of a puppy that Sajad colored while recovering at the hospital.

The boy didn't know yet that Wahid, 25, came to visit him because his father was attending the funerals for two of his other young sons. They were killed by a car bomb that blew off Sajad's lower left leg and left tiny pieces of metal scattered over his body.

"Thank God, we are positive he is going to live," said Wahid, who planned to bring the puppy picture home to their mother as proof that Sajad was alive.

Over the years, the hospital on Balad Air Base has become synonymous with combat trauma care. It is best known for saving countless U.S. soldiers with catastrophic battle injuries — more than 96 percent on average over the six-month period ending in August.

But even more astonishing: during that same time, about 93 percent of Iraqis left the hospital alive — up from an average of 89.7 percent during the previous six months.

Their injuries are devastating — shredded limbs, penetrating shrapnel fragments, massive internal bleeding and gaping head wounds.

The car bomb that wounded Sajad exploded during the evening of Sept. 12 in the town of Dujail, killing at least 32 people including his 7- and 6-year-old brothers as the three walked home after buying a few pieces of candy.

When Sajad's father heard the explosion, he raced over to his sons. Sajad was the only one still breathing. After the local hospital turned the boy away because his wounds were too severe, Sajad was taken on a U.S. helicopter to the military hospital on Balad Air Base, about 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Of the 11 Iraqis wounded in the blast who were taken to the hospital, 10 survived. The 11th was declared dead on arrival, doctors said.

As soon as the Iraqis arrived at the hospital, a team of doctors and nurses began operating — up to eight patients at a time. Nine hours later at 4 a.m., they called it a night.

"The magnitude of injury is something that's unlike what we typically experience in the civilian world. ... We had a gentleman (from the blast) with an arm blown off, a leg blown off, a kidney that was destroyed, huge soft tissue injuries, a head injury and he's alive today," said trauma chief Maj. Gary Vercruysse, an Air Force reservist who is an assistant professor of surgery at Emory University and works at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

The injured were rolled back into operating rooms again the next day. Much of the effort was placed on cleaning wounds to prevent infection. Sajad had his leg amputation wound closed and shrapnel painstakingly picked out of his body.

Trauma surgeon Lt. Col. Debra Malone spent four hours on Day Two with one man alone, closing up his amputated finger, reconnecting pieces of his shredded bowel and washing out severe leg and groin wounds.

"This man is a poster child for what we see here — head-to-toe injuries. He would have possibly not survived if he didn't come here," said Malone, a practicing physician at the University of Maryland Medical Center and chief of the medical research branch at Air Force headquarters.

Malone predicted that the man would stay at least a week in the hospital — something unheard of just a year ago.

Iraqi patients are surviving at higher rates partly because of bed space. As violence declines and fewer Americans are brought to the hospital daily, Iraqis are able to stay longer and receive more thorough care.

In August 2007, Iraqi patients stayed an average of about four days, but last month the average jumped to nearly a week, according to hospital data. The time coincides with a drop in admissions. The hospital admitted 140 trauma patients — including Americans and Iraqis — last month, less than half the number of August 2007.

"We now have the luxury of time and bed space to keep them here a little bit longer. That is a big reason why our numbers have gone up," Mavity said.

Over the past four years since the Air Force took control of the hospital, experience is paying off. Though doctors rotate every four months, the lessons and techniques are passed on not just to incoming surgeons but to doctors and medical staff back home.

"We are learning firsthand the physiology of blunt versus full body trauma," Malone said. "These are invaluable lessons because we just don't see this back home."

The place is physically cleaner as well, leading to fewer infections. Until July 2007, the hospital consisted of a series of large tents, similar to the combat hospital of the "M.A.S.H" television fame. Now the 107,000-square-foot hospital has walls, a roof overhead and pumps dispensing hand sanitizing lotion every few feet.

There's also more follow through.

American soldiers who are admitted to the hospital are usually evacuated on flights to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany within two days after arrival. A similar system has now been put in place for Iraqis who need more longer-term treatment.

If Iraqis are discharged to go home, they are given follow up appointments to come back to the base to make sure their recovery is on track. And if they need further hospital care, they are flown to facilities in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

Although there are other U.S. combat hospitals in Iraq, the Balad facility is the largest and employs the only neurosurgeons. That makes the hospital a key destination in cases of severe head wounds.

While 70 Iraqis were admitted at Balad for trauma wounds in August, many more were treated solely at Iraqi hospitals.

But even as Iraq gets better at handling its own security, it is miles away from providing the level of medical care and other type of assistance provided now by U.S. military facilities. Any large-scale U.S. military pullout by 2011 will have to be matched by a major boost in Iraq health care and sanitation to fill the gap.

For now, many Iraqis must rely on the United States to treat their blast wounds.

Less than a week after the Dujail car bomb tore long, jagged gashes in Yassir Mustafa Majid's head, arm and legs, the 32-year-old third-grade teacher met his father at one of the Balad Air Base's gates.

He was going home, but said he would return in a couple weeks to get his thick stitches removed.

"If I wasn't brought here," Majid said, "I would have died."

By ANNA JOHNSON
Associated Press
Oct 1, 2008

Camel Again

Taliban rebuild children's suicide camp in South Waziristan

UNCLASSIFIED

The Taliban have rebuilt a camp in South Waziristan that trains children
to be suicide bombers, a video from Pakistan shows. Children as young as
seven years old are indoctrinated to wage jihad in Pakistan and
Afghanistan.

The video, obtained by AfPax Insider, was shot in August in Spinkai
Ragzai, South Waziristan, a tribal area run by Pakistani Taliban leader
Baitullah Mehsud. The Taliban are seen "training dozens of boys ranging
in age from seven to 14," the news service reported. "The video attempts
to justify suicide bombings as a legitimate means of attack against
"infidels.'"

While not explicitly stated in the AfPax Insider report, the camp is run
by Qari Hussain, a senior lieutenant to Baitullah who has close links to
al Qaeda. Hussain has rebuilt his child training camp after the
Pakistani military demolished his suicide nursery during a short
offensive in Spinkai in January 2008.

In May, a senior Pakistani general described the previous camp as a
"factory." The military seized numerous documents and training materials
in the demolished camp.

"It was like a factory that had been recruiting nine to 12-year-old
boys, and turning them into suicide bombers," said Major General Tariq
Khan, the commander of Pakistan's 14 Division, which led the operation
in South Waziristan.

"The computers, other equipment and literature seized from the place ...
give graphic details of the training process in this so-called
'nursery,'" Dawn reported in May. "There are videos of young boys
carrying out executions, a classroom where 10- to 12-year olds are
sitting in formations, with white band of Quranic verses wrapped around
their forehead, and there are training videos to show how improvised
explosive devices are made and detonated."

The Pakistani military launched the operation in South Waziristan on
Jan. 24 after Taliban forces commanded by Baitullah overran two military
outposts and conducted attacks against other forts and military convoys
in the tribal agency.

The Pakistani military reported that Hussain was killed in January after
intercepting Taliban communications. The military later reiterated that
claim during the tour of the Spinkai camp on May 18.

Hussain held a press conference at a government school building in South
Waziristan five days later. During the interview,he mocked the reports
of his death. "I am alive, don't you see me?" Hussain said.

Hussain is believe to be in the running to succeed Baitullah Mehsud in
the event of his death. Baitullah is suffering from complications
related to kidney disease and was rumored to have died last week.
Baitullah was later seen visiting villagers to celebrate Eid in towns
throughout South Waziristan.

The Spinkai camp is one of 157 training camps and more than 400 support
locations in the Taliban-controled tribal areas and in the Northwest
Frontier Province.

Looking for Trouble

PFC Pyke and the Husky: As he scans the road picking up suspicious metal objects and use the skinny fork to interrogate the dirt.

SSG Mauzerall fell off as he tried to hop off the wall (The IBA with the weapon are too bulky and heavy as well. It was a bad decision on my part trying to jump off the wall)

SPC Porter and PFC Hernandez helped him up as I was taking the picture (not very good on my part)

Combat Engineer Soldiers conduct dismounted command wire sweep (what does that mean?)




as we traced the command wire to the OP, SGT LopezGarcia saw the end point of it (just a tiny berm about 500 meters away from the highway)

Camel

It is refreshing to be going on Patrol and have the luxury to see the herd of camel (may be a few hundreds total). The animal is beautiful and of course very fast, too.

Beautiful Iraq

This picture is taken from the Barrack facing toward the Motor Park with cloudy sky. The weather is unpredictable as the wind can pick up at anytime of the day which leads to dusty sky and hinder our mission and create frustration at times. But nonetheless, I have found out that Iraq (Salad Ad Din province) is a beautiful country and I'm a bit sad as we will be leaving here very shortly. That is a bold statement from me as I know that everybody would think that there is something wrong with me for saying this. Have a wonderful day, folks.

US ambassador appeals for patience in Iraq

UNCLASSIFIED

BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Sunday accused Iran of
trying to interfere with a new security pact between Iraq and the United
States, and said Americans need to view Iraq with "a sense of strategic
patience" because the stakes in the region are so high.

The 37-year veteran diplomat, interviewed by The Associated Press at his
embassy in Baghdad, is in the middle of tough negotiations with Iraqi
officials to define the basis for a continuing American military
presence in the country beyond the end of this year.

The talks hit an impasse recently and are taking place against a
backdrop of increasing calls in the United States for a U.S. withdrawal
and declining interest in the war itself from many members of the
American public.

Crocker struck an emotional note in discussing the recent
accomplishments in Iraq, including a sharp decline in violence across
much of the country and some preliminary steps toward political
reconciliation, such as last week's agreement to schedule provincial
elections by Jan. 31.

"All Americans should be and are proud of the achievements in Iraq and
the American role in bringing about the change," he said. "Iraq is in a
far, far better place than it was say 18 months ago."

However, he warned, those gains could be in jeopardy if U.S. interest in
the country is allowed to flag. "So I think what Americans need going
forward is a sense of strategic patience," he said.

"If we decide we are tired of it, if we decide we don't want to do it
anymore and that it is time to turn our attention to other things, this
could all go the other way," Crocker warned. "And it is certainly my
sense as someone who has served in the Middle East for the better part
of three decades, that you would pay a major long-term price."

He suggested it could be seen as a repeat of the U.S. withdrawal from
Lebanon in the early 1980s, a move that led countries like Iran and
Syria to draw assumptions about U.S. lack of resolve and to embrace an
attitude of defiance. "These kinds of actions have profound and very
far-reaching consequences," he said.

The talks on the military pact have hit an impasse recently over U.S.
insistence on retaining sole legal jurisdiction over American troops and
differences over a schedule for the departure of the U.S. military.
Iraqi officials have said that they want all foreign troops out by the
end of 2011.

Crocker, 59, who became ambassador in March 2007 and who is expected to
leave his post around the end of the Bush administration, is one of the
most experienced diplomats in the Middle East. He has served as
ambassador in Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait, and was ambassador to Pakistan
before his appointment to Iraq.

He said it is becoming obvious that Iran wants the current negotiations
to fail.

"The evidence is pretty clear," said the ambassador. "It is the stream
of public statements coming out of Tehran, political and clerical
figures, all criticizing the agreement. So they are being very open
about their interference."

In spite of Iran's insistence to the contrary, Crocker said Iran is
showing a "fundamental desire to oppose the development of a fully
secure and stable Iraq. I think they would like to keep Iraq off balance
as a way of being able to control events here to the satisfaction of
Tehran."

The negotiations for a long-term security agreement are being carried
out with the government against the deadline of an expiring United
Nations Security Council resolution at the end of this year that
provides the legal basis for more than 140,000 U.S. forces in the
country.

If and when an agreement is reacted, it still must be ratified by the
Iraqi parliament, where it faces strong controversy.

Crocker said he is not worried that time is running out. There are still
three months for discussions, he said, and the Iraqi parliament has been
able to deal with complex issues quickly when it has to.

If the talks fail, the United States would have to go back to the United
Nations to seek an extension of its mandate to be in Iraq, a potentially
difficult move diplomatically.

Crocker said the Iraqi government itself is opposing Iranian meddling.

He credited Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the decision in the
spring to challenge the Shiite Mahdi Army militia with forces of the
national army.

Crocker said that move was "strategically very, very important" and "a
statement that Iraq is not going to tolerate illegal militia forces that
challenge the state, whoever they are and whoever is behind them."

"With the improvement of conditions in Iraq regional powers are taking a
new look at Iraq ... but also at the U.S.," he said. "And again I think
that what happens going forward is going to have a profound effect on
how the U.S. is perceived in this region and beyond."

"If we are seen as the catalyst that does produce a stable, secure
democratic Iraq that never again threatens its own people or its
neighbors, we will be seen as a power that came in and produced a
fundamentally positive shift in this region."

Sep 29, 3:53 AM EDT
JOHN DANISZEWSKI
Associated Press