Letter from the front: Turkey Day in Tikrit
I received a Thanksgiving e-mail and photos from Dr. Tim Cook, a family physician working at the ER at the 325 Combat Support Hospital outside Tikrit. Thought you’d enjoy hearing from him:
***
Happy Thanksgiving Day greetings from Iraq.
Things have been going pretty well the last few days. When I initially got here, we were taking about four trauma patients a day from either improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or gun shot wounds. Only one out of four were Americans, the rest were Iraqi citizens, soldiers and police. The Americans faired well, only one had to go back to Europe for more surgery and should be back to duty in a couple of months. The Iraqis were more serious, with about three cases of traumatic amputation, including an Iraqi Colonel who came in missing half of his left arm and his left lower leg. Interestingly, I heard that later he was glad that it was his left arm. Iraqis consider it bad taste and an invitation to evil to do things with the left hand.
Amazingly, he and all the others are still alive.
As bad as that sounds, the half dozen or so people I have met who have been in this area two or three times all say the violence is a fraction of what they used to have. It is all the more remarkable because 325th Combat Support Hospital is responsible for about 20% of the medical coverage for Iraq outside of Baghdad. It is also located in an area north of Baghdad that is felt to be where the insurgents and terrorists are attempting to regroup after continuing to be driven out of Baghdad.
The violence in Baghdad is approaching a third to a quarter of where it was a year ago and half of where is was even four months ago. From our perspective at the CSH, the fact that we have had just four Americans hospitalized in the last week given the area we cover a fifth of Iraq is something to be very optimistic about. Of course, all of that could change tomorrow, or even before I finish this letter. But with Ramadan coming soon, the month of fasting and prayer for the Muslims, and the yearly pilgrimage after that, we are again cautiously optimistic things will continue to go the way they have.
My Thanksgiving here has been as satisfying as any in memory. Everyone is upbeat, even though we are sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop, trauma-wise. We had a big dinner with all the fixings early in the afternoon and they set up big screen TVs to watch football. And while yes, it would be nice to be home, I know that if I were magically home at this instant, I’d be wanting to be back here with my brothers and sisters in arms. Certainly, there’s a lot of things I miss about being in Vermont this time of year, but at the same time I can easily understand why people have voluntarily come back here for tour after tour after tour. If I didn’t have a business to get back to I could easily extend my own tour (assuming, of course, that there is still a business to get back to).
The gratification comes in the simplest ways possible.
Sometimes it is witnessing the sheer American ingenuity of the Intensive Care Unit nurses, whose creativity is matched only by their peerless dedication. The base had its own “Macy’s Day Parade” here earlier today and different units were allowed to enter floats and the ICU team made one with the theme “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” using surgical drapes and paper mache for the Peanuts figures and an IV pole and wire coat hangers for the tree.
Sometimes it from being able to walk past a group of Iraqi soldiers and almost instinctively put my right hand over my heart and nod my head and smile and say “Salaam” as they smile back and do the same. The idea that just a few years ago I might have been exchanging bullets with his guys instead of greetings is astounding to me. Yet every Iraqi I have met to date has been entirely gracious and grateful and very happy to speak with me if there is an interpreter around (being as I have enough difficulty with English as it is). Chalk one up for humanity.
And the three-four detainees we have treated since I have been here are quite incredulous when it finally dawns on them that we aren’t going to torture them, we aren’t going to saw their heads off, we aren’t even going to subject them to Michael Moore fakeumentories. Rather, they are bewildered to discover that people wearing the same uniform as the people they were conspiring to kill just hours before are going to treat them better then their own health care system has ever treated them. Chalk up another for humanity.
Mostly the gratification comes from simply being able to shake the hands of the soldiers - the war fighters. They generally come in for simple stuff, but every couple of days they come in to the ER after being knocked around by an IED (we’ve figured out how to make the IEDs go off such that there’s very few direct hits on vehicles - and another reason for the decline in American casualties).
I do my mandatory evaluation and ask them if they want to be put on quarters for a day to rest and recover and then they politely decline, saying thanks, but they need to get back out there on patrol with their battle buddies. Simply amazing. Someone in the ER told me that a couple of days before I arrived, we recieved an Iraqi girl with the burns from
being down the street from an IED that hit one of our vehicles. A soldier who was in the vehicle that was hit assisted in treating her on the spot and later when he presented to the ER, limping in with a bloody nose, he just kept saying”I’m good, I’m good - just take care of the girl first.” Again, amazing.
The word “hero” just doesn’t even seem to fit these people. “Heroes” are what they call characters on NBC drama series or professional football players that are apparently worth the ridiculous amounts of money they get paid. These guys, by contradistinction, are a breed apart. And so young, too. It dawns on you once in a while why the words “Infant” and “Infantry” have the same Latin root. So I say as long as they keep calling fictional characters with mystical powers heroes, or sports stars heroes, they need a new and better word then “hero” to describe the selflessness and courage I have witnessed in the soldiers I have treated here.
It is sobering and tragic that Hollywood doesn’t seem interested in telling their story. From what I understand, there’s a crop of Iraq-themed movies coming out that would prefer to rely entirely on the imagination of Hollywood screenwriters rather then tell the true stories of the soldiers themselves. So they conjure up images of our soldiers being rapists, or murderers, or victims or patsies of the Army or our government, rather than the very best our nation has to offer the rest of the world.
Being able to care for them is the best thing I have done with my life to date, and that is what I am most thankful for on this day of thanks.
Best wishes on this great day and an early Holiday Season’s greetings to you and those you hold dear.
Tim
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Michelle, Do you like putting the bullseye on your back? You know good and well you will be attacked in the Media for sharing good news out of Iraq. That’s a MSM NO NO. A big one at that. May God watch over and protect you. And thanks for the good news.
Unfortunately, articles like this are few and far between in the MSM. Thanks for sharing!
I am humbled every time I read an article like this. Where do we find men (and women) like this? I am thankful to live in a nation where these are the types of people who serve in our military and guard our freedoms and future.
Michelle,
Thanks for sharing the good news from Dr. Cook it was refreshing to hear first hand from the folks that can really judge the level of violence in Iraq the medics. I realize we have a long way to go, but it appears the level of violence has come down to that of any major city such as LA or New York. Of course we don’t have an IED or EFP problem in this country (yet), just drunk drivers. Dr. Cook thanks for all you do in the name of humanity by caring for not only our troops, but the Iraqi nationals, and even the insurgents. Continue to live up to your oath “do no harm.” May you return safely to your family and business.
Michelle,
Thank you for sharing this. The good news can be seen if you look hard enough. Unfortunately, not many people in high places are willing to put it out there.
Also a belated Happy Thanksgiving. Your hard work is very much appreciated.
And the same to all commenters here. I don’t log in much but please know that I am reading when possible. And I enjoy everyone’s contributions.
Thanks Michelle; General Patton’s quote comes to mind here;
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” General George Patton”
in_awe said
Iraq, Afghanistan, the Phillipines, and countless other places, all over the world. The funny part is, most of them AREN’T at home.
First, Do No Harm. Second, Do KNOW Harm.
When ever I hear a politician saying so and so has been ‘courageous’ for speaking the so called ‘truth to power’, it sickens me. That does not take courage.
What our troops are doing around the world takes courage, but their courage and random acts of heroism and kindness are rarely recognized by either the MSM, Hollywood or the current Democratic Party. Those bastions of ‘intellectualism’ view our Troops as deranged, crazed, wanton killers who would rather bayonet a baby then save one.
Reading emails and stories such as what MM posts, makes me proud to be a veteran, and even prouder of my fellow brothers and sisters in uniform.
http://iraqsinconvenienttruth.com/
More good news to be ignored by the MSM. Maybe it’s a good thing that the AMerican criminal liberty union won’t find out. Lawyers for all 82 captured.
Am I the first to wish a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Got out before 8 AM today-got a few Christmas items for the next X-press troop box that I’m sending. Thank you for the letter from Dr. Cook.
I had just finished a book about a Navy corpsman on Iwo Jima, “The Quiet Hero” and just ordered another one, about a corpsman, “God Isn’t Here”. Super people are those who serve in the medical field for our soldiers/sailors. I thank you Doctor Cook for your letter. Inspiration to us all.
Great article, Michelle! You won’t find any of those on the MSM sites. Too American, too upbeat, too full of pride, too “Hooah”, for the communist miscreants to handle.
LTC Cook’s letter made my day!
It is so wonderful to read something that is so uplifting for a change. We owe our military big time, for bringing us to where we are today in Iraq. We have so much to be thankful for.
Our troops are the heroes they are because they reached that nexus of something greater than themselves. It is a shared commitment that only the band of brothers (and now sisters) of combat can understand. I salute all our troops deployed to all corners of the globe; I sleep well at night because of what they do.
One of our wounded soldiers said to the good doctor:
My heart swells with pride reading those words.
Thanks for sharing the email Michelle. Our Heroes know who to speak to when they feel like talkin. Thanks for being there for them, and for us.
We don’t meed a better word than heros to describe our soldiers. No one word can encompass the full impact of Soldier from the United States of America and all it stands for. “Hero” is certainly too cheap a word. “Warrior” carries some wrong connotations. Neologisms might work over time. Until then they are our soldiers, probably the most honorable self sacrificing ladies and gentleman on the face of this planet.
{^_^}
Thank you, Dr. Cook, for the straight-up news from the Iraqi front courtesy of Michelle.
Interestingly, you deflect all honor due you, the various CSH staff and all our troops for the positive turn of events with the modest aside, “…Chalk [one/another] up to humanity.”
Let me say it for you then: “Chalk it up to our exceptional American people.”
As both a well-traveled and “decreed” American, I assure you the extraordinary nobility of the American character, whose generosity, independence, tenacity, creativity and selfless courage are both a global byword and the source of jealous bile elsewhere in the world, has been, is, and will continue to be the providential catalyst for the restoration of “humanity” to peoples whose leaders have warped their souls.
The Iraqis are only the latest in the line of such “recovered” peoples, and being the newest to the experience, are still capable of acknowledging it. (I have often wondered whether the Europeans refuse to look at Iraq honestly lest they be compelled to recall their debt of gratitude to America.)
So a Thanksgiving salute to you and all your warrior brethren, and a toast to all my fellow Americans, particularly those who can still be proud of what a wonderful people they are, and what a glorious country we have!
God’s blessings on all these Holidays!
The Docs and the medics are the best! Truly the unsung heroes, as they always have been and always will be.
On a side note, the sunsets here are the best. As bad as the country generally looks every day, there is always ten minutes of perfection in the morning or evening sky.
Michelle: If that girl needs any more care for her burns, including cosmetic surgery, I can see that she gets it here in the US, and I have friends who will provide transportation and housing for her and a family member with an Arab family while she is being treated. My friends and I are active or former military and understand how important it is to the troops to help the children - not to mention how it helps us to “win the hearts and minds” of the Iraqis.
Please contact me via the email address you have for me. I’ll give you all of the details off-line. Please believe me, this is not a fake.
I left something important out
influential
I’m very thankful for Americans like Tim.
Thanks, Michelle, for posting.
Many things to Dr. Tim Cook for his service to our country and American heroes. God bless you and keep you safe.