It Goes To 11

If you come in saying you have the worst abdominal pain of your life, and that you thought you wouldn't make the 50 yard walk to the aid station, while laughing, joking, pacing around, hopping onto the exam table, and failing to guard your abdomen, I would have to say you're probably full of shit, and not in the clinical sense.

The fact that you displayed all the characteristics of an attention-seeking fourteen year old girl on speed also does not help inspire confidence in your holding a commission. Thank goodness promotion has more to do with sit-ups, push-ups, the two-mile run, and the ability kiss ass like a porn star as we'd have a serious deficit of field grades.

Sometimes my hands literally tingle out of desire for an axe handle to swing.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Next!

Let’s see, on top of the usual aches and pains seen today: one case each of uncontrolled hypertension (180/120), facial wart cryoablation, week-old accidental self-inflicted stabbing that converted from a painful hematoma in the distal thigh at noon to a compartment syndrome helicopter medevac at 1700, extensive bilateral knee exam and documentation for persistent pain, grinding, and popping so the soldier can file a Line of Duty report for VA evaluation at home, lacerated finger care, and an interpreter with an eye infection, . With the last four patients all overlapping each other while my only other medic was unreachable and my sole provider having left the aid station to pack for a rapid redeployment home due to a family emergency. Got everybody out the door, and on the helo in the one case, to be followed by a phone call five minutes later from a warrant officer in Jalalabad wanting to know why I kept his helicopter on the landing pad for several minutes serving as an indirect fire target.

I think I earned my pay today.

And now, some images of the local version of Home Depot:

Who Says Death Has To Be Grim?

One of the MRAPs before heading out on the road. This one a CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station) on it, lessening gunner exposure. Not that everything is unexposed:



If you’re going to hose someone with bullets, at least you can bring a smile to their face first.

Ugly Gun Sunday

I'd make sure my face wasn't in the picture if I was him too.

Bless You

Why no, it doesn’t make me nervous at all the helo fuel showed up in this truck. If you can’t trust a guy in a jingle truck with a name that sounds like it came straight from a Mel Brooks movie, who can you trust?

Guess The Weapon

Given a selection of weapons recently deposited in my living or work areas, can you identify the one made by bored medics on night shift?

(a bored medic is a good thing over here)

Graves Of The Afghan Rich and Powerful

If you're the head religious guy, you get the graves above; the rest of you get a dirt pile (below):

If you're really unlucky, your "gravestone" is a piece of broken concrete slab set upright in the dirt.

Images From The Road

A series of of images from the Mehtar Lam Area, shot from inside a transport. Not the sharpest images, as they're taken through very thick windows with a thick coating of road dust. These appeared to be mainly housing, except for a quick shot of what's probably and father with his kids standing in front of a local shot.





(Security Notice: This isn't where I am, it's where I've been.)

On The Move Again

Out of Bagram and back out further east near Pakistan. So, posting will be even more intermittent than usual, although I will try to start putting up some images that don't contradict Army security policies as circumstances allow.