Struggle For Progress

One of my rides
Our version of Wal-Mart

Our trauma team at work

Have you had your dose of retard today?

My experience as a mentor continues to amaze me a does the excitement level of such a little base. There are days when my job is very similar to herding cats. Other days little miracles happen in the form of progress and we celebrate them like a Super Bowl win. I seem to be in a constant struggle with my original "problem child." His idea and my idea of what needs to be done don't always match. I have taught him an American saying that I use quite often. I call it raising the BS flag. Half my day is spent at the hospital working with my ANA counterparts and the other is spent back on the FOB taking care of administrative duties. I have made a lot of contacts in the two months I have been here and hope it will help the Med ETT that will take our place. I have seen many different FOBs and it gives me a good idea where I need to take my counterparts to teach them the skills they need to break into modern medicine. I think that is one of the best parts of my job. It helps break up the routine and helicopter rides are way cool!

The bad guys continue to surprise us with attacks in the night. I have been through five attacks in two months and have seen everything from mortars to VIEDs. They are a crafty bunch and they are almost impossible to identify. This has got to be how it felt in Vietnam. I pass hundreds of locals in a day’s time. Some of them work on the FOB and you can’t help but wonder if one of them had anything to do with the last attack.

I LOVE MY WIFE!!!!!!!!! She is the best and has been sending me care packages since day one. It’s amazing how a box from home can make a person’s day. I told my boss I wouldn’t care if it was full of TP I would still be happy as hell to get it. The elections had interrupted our mail runs for a while and it was beginning to show on people’s faces. The good news is the elections are over and the mail has resumed a “normal” schedule. The elections went better than planned. We were really expecting some nasty stuff, but business was not as good as we thought it would be. In this case bad business is good business.