Afghanistan ER

“Well, Curmudge, after spending the past couple of days thinking about Mack’s letter in our last posting, do you feel any better?”

“I don’t feel better, Jaded Julie, but I understand better. Mack is living out his belief that wounded soldiers should receive the best medical care available at the point of injury. And he has determined that he will be available. As long as he has a good PA back in the aid station, Mack will practice battlefield medicine literally in the field. He may be setting a new standard for infantry battalion surgeons.”

“I can just hear the platoon sergeant announcing, ‘Listen up, guys. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the doc is going with us on this mission. The bad news is that that means our platoon has the toughest assignment and we are the most likely to sustain casualties.’”

“Let’s hope the good news outweighs the bad and that the bad news doesn’t actually occur.”

“But Curmudge, isn’t a physician too valuable to go out into the field like Mack does?”

“I’m sure, Julie, that every parent feels that way about their 20-year old rifleman son.”

“Mack said that he and the medics carry M-4’s and act like riflemen until someone is wounded. I thought that medical personnel were noncombatants and had red crosses on their helmets.”

“That was another war, Julie. To the Taliban, a red cross—especially a cross—would look just like a bull’s-eye.”

“Curmudge, wouldn’t a physician feel out of his element in the field carrying a rifle along with his aid bag?”

“That might be true for a lot of docs, but not Mack. When he first went on active duty in the mid-1980’s, he was an infantry platoon leader. That was before a lot of today’s young soldiers were born.”

“Finally Curmudge, do you still get that knot in the pit of your stomach when you read notes from Mack?”

“It’s there all the time, Julie, and it will remain there for the next several months.”