Hello All!
Well, I grudgingly got back on the airplane in
Fairbanks and some how made it back to Mosul. I got in around the 24th of
March and have been working on getting caught up ever since. It was a
great two weeks at home with Krista and Daisy, but boy the time did fly.
We drove down to Alyeska Resort for a 4 day trip to do a little skiing and also
did a trip to the Chena Hot
Springs, but mostly just enjoyed the time together,
cherishing every moment. Saying good-bye the second time was definitely harder
than the first.
But now that I'm back in the swing of things here in
Iraq, they decided it was time for another med screen. Today was our
first glimpse at the future of these missions, as US forces were merely
supervisors today. As we transition more and more with the Iraqi Security
Forces (Army and Police), we have started delegating more responsibility to
them. Today was a perfect example. While we were still responsible
for planning of the mission, the IA medics were the ones that actually carried
it out. We were able to coordinate for 3 medics to join us today - one to
run the front desk, and two for treatment rooms. We showed up, dropped
ramp, and put the medics to work. In just over 2 hours they were able to
treat 261 people, a record for that amount of time. Our intent for our
next mission is to have the companies coordinate directly with the IA for
medics while we as a platoon just ensure they have the supplies to accomplish
it. Hopefully by the time our replacements show up the Iraqi's will be
able to do these missions without the assistance of us. But as today
goes, this will go down as a first.
Everything else continues to go well. We've
started preparations for redeployment and the transition with our replacements
from Ft Lewis. I recently got an email from my counterpart, so for me
it's starting to feel like there is an end in sight. I just got done
moving rooms, but there is rumor that we may be moving again. This may
not be a bad thing since the view from my front door isn't the best.
I hope this email finds you well. As always, I
thank you all for your continued prayers and support.
Brett