Doctors Risk Lives Taking Live Grenade Out of Soldier's Skull

Doctors risk their lives removing LIVE GRENADE from soldier's skull after 'rocket launcher gaffe'
Mirror UK
By Scott Campbell
9 JUN 2016


WARNING: Graphic content. The risky procedure was carried out in a hospital car park where a temporary operating theatre was set up to keep others out of danger

Doctors attending to the patient in the car park

This is the incredible moment heroic doctors risk their lives to remove a live grenade from a soldier's skull.

Military medics in Bogota, Colombia, held their nerve to remove the grenade, which could have exploded at any time, killing and injuring those in the vicinity.

It had become embedded in the skull of the soldier, identified as Luis Eduardo Perez Arango, of the Arauca Army's eighth division.

The dangerous procedure was carried out in the car park of the city’s Military Hospital, where a temporary operating theatre was set up to keep others safe.

Medics were worried that moving the patient might detonate the device.
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Georgia Aims Paint Brush After Two Tours in Iraq

How art therapy helps a Georgia veteran with PTSD
Atlanta Magazine
Frank Reddy
April 20, 2016

“[My art] gives me somewhere to put energy

that I have no other way to get rid of.”

Jason Smith works in his home studio.

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN KARL METZER

Everywhere Jason Smith turned, it seemed death surrounded him. As a medic in the smoldering battlegrounds of Iraq, he performed CPR on fatally wounded Marines. Back home he was involved in a car wreck that left him with a traumatic brain injury and killed a friend.

Before long he began hallucinating. There were daytime visions of dying men at his feet. In the grocery store, Smith saw the smiling ghosts of uniformed Marines waving. He was diagnosed in May 2005 with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The following year Smith, 33, was discharged after two tours in Iraq. Back in civilian life, he held and lost eight different jobs, largely due to symptoms relating to his PTSD. After a period of hardship and heavy drinking, Smith finally found comfort doing something he’d never done before: picking up a paintbrush.

These days the walls of the Gainesville, Georgia, home he shares with his wife, Pamela, are decorated with paintings and mixed-media artwork incorporating found items like feathers, vinyl records, and gnarly chunks of driftwood. Pop culture is a dominant theme—think ThunderCats cartoons, Iron Maiden album covers, and Duke’s Mayonnaise jars—but it’s not all lighthearted. One painting features a man dangling from a cliff; a group of soldiers grasp at him from below, trying to pull him down. “The chasm represents PTSD and memories and intrusive thoughts,” says the burley, bearded Smith, who swears by the healing power of the creative process.
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OEF OIF Army Medic Veteran Can't Believe He's Finally Home

'It is unbelievable': Wounded vets get housing help from Operation Finally Home
NBC TODAY
Eun Kyung Kim
April 4, 2016

Staff Sgt. Patrick Rogers used to come to the rescue of others when he worked as an Army medic in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, a non-profit organization helping wounded veterans is helping Rogers to help pay him back for his service.

Rogers returned home with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder after being injured by an explosion set off by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. The injuries made it difficult for him to work and support his wife and their three kids.

That's when he got some help from Operation Finally Home, a non-profit that works with corporate sponsors, builders and developers to provide mortgage-free houses for wounded veterans, keeping their specific physical limitations and needs in mind.

"These houses are built around what the vet's going to need," Rogers said. "In the future months, I will probably be in a wheelchair. I have to have some major surgeries. They build the houses to accommodate everything they could think of for the vets."
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Marine To Donate Kidney to National Guardsman "Brother"

He's my brother: Marine donates kidney to Nat'l Guardsman
WXIA
Kaitlyn Ross
March 25, 2016

National Guardsman Dustin Brown stands with his wife and young son holding a sign that demonstrates his plight - he needs a kidney.

ATLANTA - In less than 24 hours, a local patriot will undergo life-saving surgery.

Time was rapidly running out for a National Guardsman to receive a kidney transplant before his military contract expired.

Dustin Brown was in Stage 5 kidney failure and about to lose his insurance when another service member stepped up to help.

"We're all on the same team," Marine Corps Veteran Temple Jeffords said. "He's my brother just as much as any other person out there wearing the uniform."

Temple didn't hesitate when he saw Brown was in need.

"One of the things the Marine Corps teaches you is you're all brothers and sisters," Temple said. "That you're all part of the same family."

Dustin was about to deploy as a medic last fall when he found out his kidneys were failing.

He couldn't complete his mission to help people.
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Army Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Wasil Did Know She Broke Record

Aiming For Rio Paralympics, U.S. Army Sgt. Elizabeth Wasil First Seeks Redemption
Team USA
Karen Price
March 3, 2016

Elizabeth Wasil gets disoriented when she swims, so when she was first helped out of the pool at the Jimi Flowers Classic meet in January in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she had no idea what all the yelling was about.

“I don’t know where I am when I’m done swimming and my teammate, Reilly Boyt, was screaming, ‘You got a world record,’” Wasil said. “I was like, ‘Who are you talking to?’”

Wasil highlighted the Jimi Flowers Classic back in January with a new world record in the SB7 50-meter breaststroke.

Boyt was talking to Wasil, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, who has gone from newcomer to Paralympic hopeful in just four years. Just days after being named to the U.S. Paralympics Swimming National “A” Team, Wasil broke Jessica Long’s SB7 world record in the 50-meter breaststroke with a time of 41.21 seconds. This September, she hopes to represent her country at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games, which has been her goal, she said, since the very start of her Paralympic swimming career.

“As soon as I found out that there was a chance that I could become a member of Team USA, I wanted it,” she said. “That was my sole focus and drive in every practice, every weight session, every competition.”

Wasil isn’t comfortable discussing the specifics, but the bilateral hip injuries she suffered while serving as a medic in Iraq in 2010 led to multiple surgeries and the loss of function in her lower left leg. Though she was never a swimmer growing up, her desire to return to active duty led her to the pool in January 2012.
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Combat Medic Getting More Help After Road Rage

PTSD cited in Wellesley ‘road rage’ arrest
Boston Globe
Eric Moskowitz
Globe Staff
February 19, 2016

“It’s about the guy next to me,” Beagan’s father remembered him saying. “I feel like I should do my share to protect those guys.”

DEDHAM — When Wellesley police patted down Ian Beagan, they felt Army dog tags under his dress shirt and sweater. When they checked him for identifying marks at booking, they found the numbers 8-3-1-1 tattooed across his right knuckles.

The tags and the inked digits — the date Beagan’s friends were blown up, according to his father — hinted at the burden he has carried in the four years since he returned from Afghanistan.

On Thursday, the 25-year-old community college student was arrested for allegedly pointing a loaded gun at another motorist on Route 9, in an incident police said was “road rage.” In court Friday, Beagan’s lawyer called the episode a result of post-traumatic stress disorder, and a judge postponed Beagan’s arraignment so he could seek evaluation and treatment.

Beagan told police he had been a combat medic and hinted at an experience his father detailed to the Globe in an interview. On Aug. 3, 2011, the truck Beagan usually rode in was carrying five soldiers when it struck a hidden improvised explosive device on a bridge in the Nerkh District, his father said. Two died instantly; two others were badly wounded. Beagan was not on board, but he responded quickly to the scene, treating the wounded.

“Some soldiers have survivor’s guilt,” said his father, Michael Beagan. On top of that, “medics feel it’s their duty to keep their unit safe — that even if they weren’t there, somehow it’s their fault, and Ian has tremendous guilt that his buddies died.”
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Afghanistan Vet Ordered To Get Counseling After Wellesley Road Rage Incident From CBS News

"The One Life Burnside Could Not Repair or Save Was His Own"

Santa Rosa Army veteran who suffered from PTSD buried after suicide 
Press Democrat News
Meg McConahey
February 14, 2016

On Sunday, in a scene all too familiar across the country, more than 100 friends and family members, surrounded by a protective phalanx of veterans with the Patriot Guard and American Legion on motorcycles, gathered at Cypress Hill Cemetery in Petaluma to say goodbye to a young man variously called “intense,” “loyal, ”committed,” “compassionate,” “heroic” and even “God-sent.”

Lynnett Casey watches as military rites are given to her son, Combat Medic Sgt. Raymond Burnside, a U.S. Army veteran, at Cypress Hill Memorial Park in Petaluma, February 14, 2016. Burnside killed himself after suffering from service-related PTSD due to serving as an Army Medic in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Jeremy Portje/For The Press Democrat)

As an Army medic, Ray Burnside was called upon to save many lives during two tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to administering care that included performing emergency surgery on fellow soldiers in combat, he was credited with providing medical help to more than 4,000 Iraqis and veterinary services to 2,000 head of livestock.

His humanitarian efforts built up the kind of trust and loyalty among Iraqi civilians that helped the U.S. military gain critical access to key tribal leaders, officials said in a letter awarding him the Bronze Star.

But the one life Burnside could not repair or save was his own. Beneath his man-of-steel exterior, the sensitive young Sonoma County native who as a teenager was a pacifist and handed out food to homeless people in Old Courthouse Square was imploding into a thousand little pieces.

In the small hours of the morning on Jan. 27, nearly four years after he was honorably discharged and returned home to Santa Rosa, Burnside checked into a Santa Rosa motel and texted his mother, Lynnette Casey, that he had a rope with which to hang himself.
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Texas Veterans With Service Dogs Still Not Welcomed?

Woman says company refused to allow service dog
Killeen Daily Herald
Clay Thorp | Herald staff writer
February 8, 2016

When Kimberly Pearson retired from the Army in 2012 after serving in Iraq as a combat medic, she said she made the decision to enlist the help of a large breed of service dog to help her with balance and pain in her legs after suffering injuries in a 2004 ambush.

Eric J. Shelton | Herald

Dog

Kimberly Pearson gives her service dog Zakhar, a Caucasian Ovcharka, a kiss Monday at Mickey's Dog Park on W.S. Young Drive in Killeen. Pearson was denied entry into Palm Harbor because of her service dog.

“Basically, there was an ambush and lots of explosions,” Pearson said. “My feet and legs received injuries that needed six surgeries so far. And they’re not quite done with the surgeries, so I still have a lot of issues with pain and imbalance. It was just a mess. I was the medic. Instead of running away, I ran in and I kind of paid for it.”

Soon after, Pearson special ordered her new Russian Bear dog from Romania, as she said breeders there are known for raising mild-mannered giants.

But on Monday, Pearson said she and her service dog, Zakhar — who weighs 150 pounds — were denied access to Palm Harbor Homes, a local home store where Pearson wanted to look at model homes.

“It’s a very large dog because I use him for balance,” Pearson said of her 1-year-old dog.

“So, he’s large and he scares people, even though he’s a teddy bear. People just look at him and he scares them.”

Pearson said the employees at Palm Harbor simply wouldn’t allow them inside any model homes.

A similar incident in July occurred at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Harker Heights.

Dave Alvarado, 39, went to the retail store to buy a few items July 10, right after he finished a counseling session for his PTSD, which he said he developed during two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
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Combat Air Evacuations May Make TBI Worse?

New study: Air evacuation may do further harm in patients with brain injury 
Findings could have major implications for treatment of military injuries
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
November 30, 2015

About a quarter of all injured soldiers evacuated from Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered head injuries.

Baltimore, MD, November 30, 2015--Over the past 15 years, more than 330,000 U.S. soldiers have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is one of the leading causes of death and disability connected to the country's recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of these patients were evacuated by air from these countries to Europe and the U.S. for further treatment. In general, these patients were flown quickly to hospitals outside the battle zone, where more extensive treatment was available.

But now a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has found evidence that such air evacuations may pose a significant added risk, potentially causing more damage to already injured brains. The study is the first to suggest that air evacuation may be hazardous for TBI patients. The study was published today in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

"This research shows that exposure to reduced barometric pressure, as occurs on military planes used for evacuation, substantially worsens neurological function and increases brain cell loss after experimental TBI - even when oxygen levels are kept in the normal range. It suggests that we need to carefully re-evaluate the cost-benefit of air transport in the first days after injury," said lead researcher Alan Faden, MD, the David S. Brown Professor in Trauma in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Neurology, and Neurosurgery, and director, Shock, Trauma and Anesthesiology Research Center (STAR) as well as the National Study Center for Trauma and Emergency Medical Services.

The research was funded by the U.S. Air Force.
"This research has the potential to connect bench to bedside in an important, potentially lifesaving way," said Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also Vice President of Medical Affairs, the University of Maryland and the John Z. and Akiko Bowers Distinguished Professor. "Dr. Faden is part of an impressive group of scientists at the School who are helping to unlock the mysteries of the brain."
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Married Veteran Medics Battle PTSD in West Virginia

A Veteran's War: Battling PTSD
The News Center
By: Natalie Price
Nov 17, 2015

"As a medic, you see a lot of trauma sometimes. I could see anything from people missing limbs to people deceased, in the most violent ways you can imagine," Ryan Curry.

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - Servicemen and women fighting for our freedom see things that we as civilians couldn't possibly imagine. When they return home, the experiences overseas can haunt them.

U.S. combat soldiers show a drastic increase in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases compared to civilians. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, up to 20% of our veterans who fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom are now fighting PTSD. They join 12% of Gulf War veterans and 30% of Vietnam veterans.

This is the story of two retired Army medics.

From the outside, they live in a peaceful home that sits in a quiet neighborhood. The front yard is littered with toys and play sets. No one would suspect that on the inside a war is being waged.

Ryan and Kathlyn Curry are no strangers to war. They are both retired Army veterans, now adjusting to civilian life. They are both still fighting a battle.

"I was having nightmares and flashbacks, you relive it. And it doesn't seem to go away. It effects kind of every aspect of your life. You can't sleep or you get depressed or anxiety, it definitely makes things difficult," Kathlyn said.

Ryan and Kathlyn have both been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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Wyoming National Guardsmen "Charlie Med" Deploy to Afghansitan

Wyoming troops off to Afghanistan
Wyoming Tribune Eagle News
Trevor Brown
October 16, 2015

During a ceremony marking its deployment Friday, Wyoming Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Luke Reiner told the group that this is a critical and potentially life-saving mission.

Chief Warrant Officer II Bryan Herget spends some time with his children, Aiden, 8, left, and Olivia, 6, during a deployment ceremony on Friday at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. Eighteen members of the Wyoming Army National Guard's 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment will leave Saturday morning for a month-long training mission in Texas before deploying to Afghanistan for 9 months.
Blaine McCartney/Wyoming Tribune Eagle

CHEYENNE - The Wyoming Army National Guard's most deployed unit since 2001 is about to head overseas again. 

Eighteen soldiers with the Guard's "Charlie Med" company are gearing up for a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan.

The group is expected to leave today for a month-long training mission in Texas before heading off to the Middle East.

The Guard's C Company, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, as they are known formally, is based in Cheyenne. It operates UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and will provide medical evacuation support for U.S. and coalition troops.

During a ceremony marking its deployment Friday, Wyoming Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Luke Reiner told the group that this is a critical and potentially life-saving mission.

"You provide that safety net that our service members of all branches and our allies rely on," he said. "You provide the speed for the first golden hour, the hour that is key to determining whether a wounded man or woman lives or dies."
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Utah National Guardsmen Blackhawks Deploy to Afghanistan

Families say goodbye to loved ones deployed to Afghanistan
KSL News
By Alex Cabrero
Posted Oct 17th, 2015

"We train to take care of soldiers on their worst day," William Grimshaw

(Photo: Mike DeBernardo, KSL-TV)

WEST JORDAN — Brittany Grimshaw's husband is with the Utah National Guard's 159th Aviation Regiment, so she has said goodbye to her husband before.

"The first three months you just sit there curled up in a ball crying," Brittany Grimshaw said.

Saturday, she had to say goodbye to her husband, 1st Lt. William Grimshaw.

"The fact he's away from us for a year and putting his life on the line to go help people over there, if people don't even know why he's doing it, it's a waste," Brittany Grimshaw said.

Seventeen soldiers on this team are going to Afghanistan. Their mission is to fly Blackhawk helicopters to where injured soldiers are, load them in, then fly to a hospital as quickly as possible.
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Oregon Iraq Veteran Combat Medic Faces Judge--May Get Justice

Former combat medic admits robbing credit union in Eugene
Former military medic Jace Heney is to be sentenced Jan. 20 after pleading guilty to robbing a credit union
The Register Guard
By Jack Moran
OCT. 15, 2015

A former military combat medic who pleaded guilty on Wednesday to robbing a credit union near downtown Eugene in November told a judge that he committed the crime during a period in which he used hard drugs to alleviate the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Heney admitted being the person who robbed an Oregon Community Credit Union branch at 488 E. 11th Ave. on Nov. 4. The robber handed a teller a demand note and later fled after taking $1,800, according to an investigator’s affidavit filed in court.

Authorities circulated surveillance photos of the robber and subsequently received several tips from members of the public who said they thought the man depicted in the images was Heney, according to the affidavit.

Aiken thanked Heney for his military service and asked that he and Weintraub, as well as the federal prosecutor handling the case, contact officials with a federal Veterans’ Court program in Virginia to get an idea of how cases similar to Heney’s are handled there.
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Army Drops AWOL Charges Against Ranger-Combat Medic

16 Months after Illegal Search, Army Drops AWOL Case against Ranger
The News Tribune
by Adam Ashton
Oct 08, 2015

At the time of his arrest, Schwisow was a well-regarded medic who had proved himself repeatedly in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of his former officers said.

The Army has dismissed a long-running desertion case against a veteran Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army Ranger who spent more than a year in jail after military police illegally searched his Tacoma apartment.

An Army judge's decision late Tuesday gave Staff Sgt. Brian Schwisow his first night of freedom since he was taken into custody in June 2014.

The veteran of six combat deployments was apprehended after a team of at least six military police officers followed Schwisow's apartment building manager into his home without a warrant while aiming to arrest him on suspicion of desertion and drug-related charges.

Agents and prosecutors left no doubt in court this week that Army police erred when they walked into Schwisow's apartment with their guns drawn.

"You didn't have the authority to go into his apartment, did you?" Army Judge Col. Jeffery Lippert asked the senior Army drug suppression officer who participated in Schwisow's arrest.

"No sir," agent Jennifer Acevedo replied in court at a pretrial hearing.

That error, though serious, was not the reason that Lippert dismissed the six criminal charges against Schwisow.

The dismissal centered on delays that have kept Schwisow in confinement for 489 days while awaiting a trial for desertion and narcotics charges.
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Air Force Media Heading Home After 7th Deployment

After 7 overseas deployments, Air Force medic looks forward to going home
Herald-Times (Tribune News Service)
By Laura Lane
Published: September 27, 2015

He also served on humanitarian missions twice, to help fight wildfires in California in 2007 and to help victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Matt Scott's world is defined by 15-foot-high cement walls, steel doors, guards with assault rifles, armored Humvees, suicide bombers and vehicle-borne explosives.

It's a short distance to work every day, but he gets transported in a helicopter. It's safer than driving on sabotaged roads in the deserts of Afghanistan, where a thin layer of gray, silt-like dust covers everything in sight and danger lurks always.

When winter cold sets in, air quality deteriorates. "It gets wet and humid and dreary and snowy," the U.S. Air Force master sergeant from Ellettsville, Ind., said. "The people here burn literally everything to stay warm, and the pollution gets very bad."

Six thousand feet above sea level and 7,673 miles from home, the 38-year-old Monroe County native and flight medic is serving out the end of a two-decade military career during which he has been deployed overseas seven times.
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Combat Medic Florida National Guardsman Paying Price for 9-11

If you forgot about 9-11-2001, there were a lot of folks rushing to do whatever they could to help the survivors and find whatever remains they could. One of them was an Army National Guardsman from right here in Florida. Reading his story and what happened to him, it only seemed right to put into context what he did back then. This is from Tampa Tribune great report by Howard Altman.

Garrett Goodwin was a medic, working in the emergency room at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, in September 2001.

On Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, he was in bed, watching TV before an afternoon shift, when he saw what turned out to be United Flight 175 hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Goodwin, a combat medic with the Army National Guard who had experience in disaster recover efforts, says he packed his bag, hopped in his truck and drove down to MacDill Air Force Base, hoping to catch a flight north to help during the unfolding catastrophe.

But nothing was flying anywhere. So he and a friend drove north, toward the Pentagon.

“We did rescue work for three or four hours, but there was no one to save, so we went to New York,” Goodwin says.

They arrived about 6:30 a.m., Sept. 12. Goodwin says he checked in with the military authorities on scene, they told him what he could do, and he was given a “red card” allowing him access.

For the next 24 days, he worked between 18 and 20 hours in what used to be the tallest building in America. It had become a mass grave.

So how did he end up this way?

Tampa man ill just now from help he gave at Ground Zero
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman
Tribune Staff
Published: September 27, 2015

Garrett Goodwin is a casualty of al-Qaida’s war against the U.S.

Shortly after the jihadi organization turned aircraft into weapons, obliterating the World Trade Center in New York, hitting the Pentagon and crashing into a Pennsylvania field, Goodwin made the trip from Florida to Manhattan to help recovery efforts. He spent more than three weeks in the smouldering pile of twisted beams that was once the World Trade Center — the place where Pope Francis on Friday summoned the world to “unity over hatred.”

Now, Goodwin is paying the price.

It includes a stay, since last Tuesday, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he is desperately seeking help for the maladies he believes are a result of his time at Ground Zero.

Finally, after a health scare that started on the 14th anniversary of the attacks, Goodwin realized he needed greater medical attention.

There are many others like him — first responders who have became casualties of war by dint of their time searching the wreckage, first for survivors, then for remains.

Every day, there are more Garrett Goodwins, coming forward seeking help.
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Corporal John M. Dawson Medical Clinic Remembers "Doc"

Fort Campbell’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team holds ceremony naming Medical Clinic after fallen medic
Clarksville Online
Written by Capt. Charles Emmons
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs
September 25, 2015

“I could always see the love his fellow Soldiers felt for him here on the OB and out on patrols,” said Curl. “After we lost Doc, you could see it in all of their faces. He will forever be in all of our hearts, and we will be better people because we knew him.”

Gen. John F. Campbell, commander of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, shakes hands with 3rd BCT, 101st Airborne Division Soldiers present for the dedication of a medical clinic named for their fallen platoon medic, Sept. 17th, 2015, in eastern Afghanistan.
(Capt. Charles Emmons, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs)

Jalalabad, Afghanistan – Service members gathered in eastern Afghanistan September 17th, to celebrate the life of Cpl. John Dawson and honor his memory by dedicating a medical facility in his name.

The 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) hosted the ceremony, which was attended by leadership from 3rd BCT; Train, Advise, Assist, Command-East; and Resolute Support. The short event included a speech from Lt. Col. Jason Curl, commander of 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment “Men of War,” and an official unveiling of the plaque and sign for the Corporal John M. Dawson Medical Clinic.
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Iraq Combat Medic Doing What is Needed Back Home

‘Doc Lucas’: Iraq War Medic Now Aids Veterans At Home
Lake Expo.com
Nathan Bechtold
September 18, 2015

Now, with the local VFW post in a fight for its life, Lucas is still "doc" to the entire group. 

Camdenton, Mo. — War leaves its participants with wounds: sometimes visible, others invisible. And across history, military medics have played a special role that takes a special kind of courage—entering the battle not to harm, but to heal.

Lake-area resident Keith “Doc” Lucas was the lead medic assigned to A Company, 1140th Engineer Company during its deployment to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom II, Feb. 2004–Feb. 2005.

Lucas’ company commander during the deployment was Captain James Phillips. Here are his words about “Doc’s” willingness to plunge into a horrific scene:

1st Platoon was conducting route clearance operations southwest of Baghdad while being supported by C Battery 4/27 FA and a contingent Engineers from the 40th Engineer Brigade in the lead up to Operation Phantom Fury. It was the day Keith “Doc” Lucas not only performed his duties as Medic, he was faced with a mass causality event that would have broken most people.

A suicide bomber with a large quantity of artillery rounds loaded into his car drove into a squad of soldiers and detonated. Doc was the on the site and dismounted before his vehicle had even came to a full halt. He rushed into the “Hell” of combat without hesitation. He went from one American Soldier laying on the battlefield to the other, triaging them as a good Medic should.

He passed the soldiers that were either already dead or so close to death that he would be unlikely be able to save them. He focused on treating the soldiers he could provide for. He did this while surrounded in what was worse than I described in the first paragraph.

Smells, sounds, emotions, unknown enemy locations, Apache attack helicopters circling just meters overhead as the medevac Blackhawks were coming in. He made life and death decisions that day and he made the right decisions. His first experience as Medic would have broken many, to include active duty medics. After 2 hours or so on the site, Keith reclaimed his position in the vehicle and the unit continued on with the mission finding IEDs and didn’t return to the Forward Operation Base until later that evening. The enemy would not deter us or Keith “Doc” Lucas. Keith received the Army’s Combat Medic Badge for his actions that fateful day.

Since returning to civilian life, Lucas works as a web designer for MSW Interactive Designs—a web marketing company at the Lake. But his service to his brothers-in-arms has not come to an end: Lucas is the Post Surgeon (Community Relations) at Camdenton VFW Post 5923. At the post and by keeping close contact with his old unit, Lucas is still helping veterans heal. As he sees it, Lucas is commissioned with connecting veterans across generations—helping recent war vets deal with potentially debilitating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Those who served in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and other conflicts bring unique wisdom to veterans of America’s 21st-century wars, and can show them the way through the invisible wounds that tend to linger.

Lucas has a history of going beyond the call of duty. Phillips wrote, “Doc went out on more missions than the Combat Engineers in the company since his skills as a Medic were always needed. Doc confided in me early in the deployment that wasn’t sure he could do what needed to be done in the event his skills where called upon. Doc said his concern was due to his non-medic background in his civilian life. I told him his training would carry him through.” read more here

US Navy "Moral Injury" Step In Healing Souls

Soldier’s journey to heal spotlights ‘soul wounds’ of war
Associated Press
JULIE WATSON
Published: August 23, 2015

The Navy now runs one of the military’s first residential treatment programs that addresses
the problem — the one that Powell found.

This March 17, 2015 photo shows a photgraph of now-retired U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Powell standing with a U.S. Army MEDEVAC helicopter in Iraq during his last tour to the country, at Powell's brother's house in Crescent, Okla. Powell, who served as a military nurse in Iraq and Afghanistan, was deeply haunted by his experiences, and nearly lost his own internal war with depression before finding meaningful help.
(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — “It was just another day in Mosul,” the soldier began, his voice shaking. Sgt. 1st Class Marshall Powell took a deep breath. He couldn’t look at the other three servicemen in the group therapy session.

He’d rarely spoken about his secret, the story of the little girl who wound up in his hospital during the war in Iraq, where he served as an Army nurse. Her chest had been blown apart, and her brown eyes implored him for help. Whenever he’d thought of her since, “I killed the girl,” echoed in his head.

Powell kept his eyes glued to the pages he’d written.

He recalled the chaos after a bombing that August day in 2007, the vehicles roaring up with Iraqi civilians covered in blood. Around midnight, Powell took charge of the area housing those with little chance of survival. There, amid the mangled bodies, he saw her.

She was tiny, maybe 6 years old, lying on the floor. Her angelic face reminded him of his niece back home in Oklahoma.

Back in the therapy room, saying it all out loud, Powell’s eyes began to fill just at the memory of her. “I couldn’t let her lay there and suffer,” he said.

A doctor had filled a syringe with painkillers. Powell pushed dose after dose into her IV.

“She smiled at me,” he told the others in the room, “and I smiled back. Then she took her last gasp of air.”
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New York Army National Guard Medic Receives Medal of Valor

Afghanistan war vet receives state Medal of Valor for helping two boys shot on Syracuse street
AuburnPub.com
Robert Harding
3 hours ago

A New York Army National Guard medic is being recognized for her actions last fall after two boys were shot near her home in Syracuse.

New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Marlana Watson.

Army Staff Sgt. Marlana Watson received the Medal of Valor, the state's highest military award for heroism, at a ceremony Wednesday in Farmingdale. She was recognized for her response to an incident on Nov. 5, 2014 in Syracuse.

Watson, who was assigned to the 107th Military Police Company and living in Syracuse at the time, heard gunfire outside her home. She looked outside and discovered two boys, ages 13 and 15, who were shot and laying in a yard across from her house.

She asked her sister to call 911 before heading outside. One boy was shot in the upper buttocks, so she used one of the boy's socks to stop the bleeding.

The other boy was wounded in the thigh and calf. Watson told him to lie still while she checked his wounds and asked her sister to get a blanket when the boy said he was cold.

Watson stayed with the boys until paramedics and police arrived at the scene.
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