[….] The U.S. military’s ability – not to mention its willingness – to take a critically ill soldier on the equivalent of a seven-hour elevator ride epitomizes an essential feature of the doctrine for treating war wounds in the 21st century:
Keep the patient moving.
In the civilian world, victims of car accidents and gunshots hope to get to a hospital that can save their life – and then stay there. The military strategy is pretty much the opposite – and is, paradoxically, part of the reason the care of soldiers wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been so successful.
…
The patients, the aircrew and a few passengers occupied the forward two-thirds of the jet’s cavernous interior. At the forward end were containerized toilets. Toward the aft end was a 10-foot-high cargo box. Beyond it, in an area dark and 15 degrees colder, the retracted ramp sloped upward, piled with pallets of cargo.
A single row of seats lined the walls of the plane. Toward the center of the fuselage, the litters were clamped to hangers suspended from the ceiling. On these triple-decker bunks were patients whose wounds did not require constant vigilance
READ THE REST OF STORY HERE!
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For Those of you who are unaware, a C-17 or a C-130 is the most uncomfortable flight you can imagine. They are extremely loud and very bumpy. There are no ‘real’ seats, but benches. Its like flying in a warehouse with zero creature comforts. There are no restrooms, but literally toilets attached to the wall, behind a curtain. SERIOUSLY. Even for a hardcore soldier, its the most uncomfortable ride you can imagine.
I cannot fathom how unbearable it must be for a severely wounded troop to endure this trip from combat theater in Afghanistan – all the way to Germany – and then on to Walter Reed in D.C. 😦
Some of these troops literally have their GUTS HANGING OUT while in flight. No disrespect for the wounded, but the scene must be like a flying meat locker of pain and carnage. I’m just trying to bring a sense of realism into my writing.
See this guy? This is indicative of the mindset of many of our troops in action.
Unfortunately, Reality usually has something else in mind, no matter how tough a person thinks they are. The Reailty is that sometimes what doesn’t kill them – weakens them and leaves them spending the rest of their lives fighting for Veteran benefits once they are of no further use to Uncle Sam and released. The reality is that everything is fine until a troop is FUBAR (F___ Up Beyond All Repair) – and then they are dismissed with papers, ribbons, awards and tokens – and the promise of being ‘taken care of’.
Again – that is not the popular thing to say – but I only deal in Reality – not popularity. 😐
I’m sure some of you reading this are thinking, ‘Well, that’s what they signed up for. These troops fight for our freedoms while You are sitting her talking $%*#! You should be supporting them, not giving the military a hard time!’
……Right.
Hey look, I’m not going to go into the whole history of the lack of WMDs that Bush sent us over to Iraq in the first place
– or how it is an INTERNATIONAL VIOLATION and a WAR CRIME to start a war against another country without provocation – or, how we started this ridiculous hunt for bin Laden back in 2001, to pin the blame on him for Sep 11th – even though most of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia.
I’m not going to do that.
BUT LET ME POINT OUT that even as a troop, (myself as a former troop), all we ever asked for was to be treated as humanely as POSSIBLE when we got injured. All a troop ever really asks for is to be treated with respect and honesty, point us in the direction of the ‘bad guys’, pay us on time, give us really good serviceable equipment – and to be treated humanely when we are of no further use in combat or service.
Most troops – even yours truly – thats all we ever ask for. That, and hot food. 🙂
…..but this right here??? This I’m not too sure about. But this is what our military is doing. Its either indicative of bad things really are ‘over there’ – or just another incompetent decision from higher ups. And trust me – THERE ARE PLENTY OF THOSE (incompetent decisions, that is)
I’ll be honest, when I write about stuff like this, most of the time I’m not sure I have a solution.
My first obvious answer would be to NOT do this. But – who am I, right?
I’m just a guy with a commentary. I just like to stay aware of what is REALLY going on behind the scenes. And I like to tell the truth about things.
But I do know about life from both sides of the fence. I spent 8 years living this lifestyle as a troop – first as a single guy and later with my family. I know about the harshness of deployments. The reality of PTSD – and not played on TV by gorgeous actors pretending to be troops. REAL PEOPLE with REAL PROBLEMS. People dependent on drugs to cope with life.
I saw my share of blood and guts. I admit, I wasn’t ‘in the s##t’ -as they say- but I definitely called in my share of medivacs and air evacs, manning radios at TOCs (tactical operation center) on FOBs (forward operations base). I’ve stood on hand in a CASH (combat army support hospital) watching bodies, and sometimes – BODY PARTS come through the door. I know the REALITY of military life beyond the propaganda commercials and soundbites on TV.
So yeah…I guess you could say I have a strong opinion about this type of stuff.
By KIMBERLY DOZIER – Associated Press,SOLOMON MOORE – Associated Press | AP – 3 hrs ago
Suicide Nation 