31 JAN 2008 Back again
Just got word from one of my bros that he has arrived safely at Balad. The duty has passed to him and his crew, and I'm sure that they will give the troops the finest surgical care anywhere in the world. It feels a little strange because we were on the surgical team together in 2005. After four months working at the hospital in Balad day after day, I began to get the erroneous impression that the place would fall over if I wasn't there to help. But the medical corps is bigger than this one little troop and I know that it will carry on just fine.
Tomorrow I head back to work at my hospital in Texas. Reconstitution time has gone by so quickly and I could use more and more! Most of all I have loved spending every day with M., eating, shopping, or just hanging out together at home. I already know that there is a toddler waiting for me in the intensive care unit who may need surgery. I have to complete the shift from combat support surgeon to pediatric surgeon because there will be babies depending on me. All I can promise is that I will try.
31 January 2008
30 January 2008
29 JAN 2007 One G in
29 JAN 2007 One G in
This is just a short post to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who has bought the book. With the recent royalties received, we have been able to go to over $1000 donated to Fisher House. It's a small amount, maybe not as much as Garry Trudeau or Denzel Washington have given, but if that little sum helps even one family of a wounded soldier, it is worth it. A special thank you from me because the timing is so helpful. After coming home from deployment where I help troops every day in a concrete way, I always feel a little troubled that I am suddenly doing nothing for injured troops. Giving royalties to Fisher House makes me feel like we are doing our small part.
Anyone wishing to give directly can find options at http://www.fisherhouse.org/
This is just a short post to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who has bought the book. With the recent royalties received, we have been able to go to over $1000 donated to Fisher House. It's a small amount, maybe not as much as Garry Trudeau or Denzel Washington have given, but if that little sum helps even one family of a wounded soldier, it is worth it. A special thank you from me because the timing is so helpful. After coming home from deployment where I help troops every day in a concrete way, I always feel a little troubled that I am suddenly doing nothing for injured troops. Giving royalties to Fisher House makes me feel like we are doing our small part.
Anyone wishing to give directly can find options at http://www.fisherhouse.org/
29 January 2008
29 JAN 2007 Garry Trudeau gets it
29 JAN 2007 Garry Trudeau gets it
I am a longtime fan of the work of Garry Trudeau. When I was just a toddler, he was documenting the Viet Nam war and the reaction on college campuses. A few years later I read a collection of his wartime comics and I was amazed how the characters came to life. Zonker's slacker Zen approach to life and B.D.'s intensity as he wore his football helmet in Viet Nam after enlisting made these real characters who grew and changed through their experiences.
Trudeau has been a staunch supporter of veterans. He has met with troops and written their stories. He has donated royalties from "The Long Road Home" and "The War Within" to Fisher House. These two books tell the story of B.D. fight to live after losing a leg to an RPG and his subsequent battle with PTSD. He has also worked to help Disabled American Veterans and hosts a forum for milbloggers called the Sandbox.
In the past three months, the daily Doonesbury cartoon strip has been relating the story of Toggle, a specialist injured by VBID in Iraq. Toggle is introduced as the soldier who programs other troops' iPods before they go out on a mission.
(Source: Doonesbury, Trudeau, 2007)
He injects his own personality and individuality into his duty as a deployed troop.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071127
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071128
He may bend a rule or two, but he is all about the mission.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071129
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071130
Last month, Toggle's HMMWV is hit by a VBID.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071203
He suffers an eye injury and a brain injury causing aphasia. He is evacuated home in a C-17 through Landstuhl to Andrews.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080123
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080124
Trudeau knows details of our pipeline home for the injured that one could have only gained by being there.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080126
When Toggle arrives at Andrews, he is met by B.D., who feels a need to be at his side, in spite of, or perhaps even because of his own struggle with PTSD after his own injury.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071211
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080128
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080129
I know that Toggle isn't real, but I read in him so many young men and women we launched from Balad with high hopes that they would find a future life of recovery and happiness. Perhaps he seems so real because Trudeau has come in contact with so many troops fighting to get their lives back after injury. I don't think I'll know how it turned out for thousands of the troops I sent home. I'm hoping that Toggle does okay. Maybe if he can make it, the ones I knew did too.
I am a longtime fan of the work of Garry Trudeau. When I was just a toddler, he was documenting the Viet Nam war and the reaction on college campuses. A few years later I read a collection of his wartime comics and I was amazed how the characters came to life. Zonker's slacker Zen approach to life and B.D.'s intensity as he wore his football helmet in Viet Nam after enlisting made these real characters who grew and changed through their experiences.
Trudeau has been a staunch supporter of veterans. He has met with troops and written their stories. He has donated royalties from "The Long Road Home" and "The War Within" to Fisher House. These two books tell the story of B.D. fight to live after losing a leg to an RPG and his subsequent battle with PTSD. He has also worked to help Disabled American Veterans and hosts a forum for milbloggers called the Sandbox.
In the past three months, the daily Doonesbury cartoon strip has been relating the story of Toggle, a specialist injured by VBID in Iraq. Toggle is introduced as the soldier who programs other troops' iPods before they go out on a mission.
(Source: Doonesbury, Trudeau, 2007)
He injects his own personality and individuality into his duty as a deployed troop.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071127
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071128
He may bend a rule or two, but he is all about the mission.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071129
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071130
Last month, Toggle's HMMWV is hit by a VBID.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071203
He suffers an eye injury and a brain injury causing aphasia. He is evacuated home in a C-17 through Landstuhl to Andrews.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080123
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080124
Trudeau knows details of our pipeline home for the injured that one could have only gained by being there.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080126
When Toggle arrives at Andrews, he is met by B.D., who feels a need to be at his side, in spite of, or perhaps even because of his own struggle with PTSD after his own injury.
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20071211
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080128
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080129
I know that Toggle isn't real, but I read in him so many young men and women we launched from Balad with high hopes that they would find a future life of recovery and happiness. Perhaps he seems so real because Trudeau has come in contact with so many troops fighting to get their lives back after injury. I don't think I'll know how it turned out for thousands of the troops I sent home. I'm hoping that Toggle does okay. Maybe if he can make it, the ones I knew did too.
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