I was in the chow hall today and I overheard a conversation between an Army Captain and several enlisted guys. The Captain said that he was finding it really hard to tell his people that they should re-enlist in the Army. Basically because of the stories that I heard from the enlisted guys. One of them has been in the Army for 5 years, 3 years of it has been spent on deployment! That’s outrageous! He stated that it was really hard for him to have a meaningful relationship with anyone since he’s gone all of the time. He also said that he is nearing the end of his enlistment and that even if the Army gave him a gold plated Mercedes he was still going to get out, a few choice cuss words were used! Even though the Canadians do a poor job in utilizing the people with certain skill sets (not the people in this hospital it comes from higher up and yes I’m still pissed about Ron leaving for Kuwait!) they do take care of their deployed personnel. During a 6-7 month deployment they get to go on a paid vacation for 3 weeks to a destination of their choosing, and a replacement is sent out to cover their shifts while they are gone. What a deal! Some went to Greece, Italy, Spain, and Bolivia. Could the US Military do something similar with their troops, probably not due to the massive amounts of people deployed all over, and our Armed Services spread so thin around the globe, thank you Mr. Clinton! But I’ll tell you one thing, the morale and retention of the troops both would definitely increase. The Army is giving us 4 days of R&R to go to Qatar, which is a good deal and I think that you get a couple of weeks off to go home if you are deployed for a year. I think that they really need to re-evaluate that program and come up with a better plan to take care of their people, but who am I, I just count things in an OR for a living! Haha. Don’t get me wrong, the Navy has treated me very well over the last 19 years and I am very grateful for all the opportunities that my service as afforded me. I would still encourage all young people to do at least one tour in the branch of service of their choosing, it is a great experience and it instills a feeling of accomplishment and pride.
I wanted to give a shout out to the SUPPORT THE TROOPS OF HARTFORD, WI, HARTFORD VFW #8834, AMERICAN LEGION POST #19, PACK & SHIP OF HARTFORD, WI, SUPPORT THE TROOPS FRIENDS AND FAMILIES, ST. GABRIEL’S CHURCH RICHFIELD, WI, NORTHLAND MARKETING AND STARBUCKS IN WEST BEND, WI. Thank you all very much for the box that you sent out to me. It pretty much contained everything that I needed. Fantastic! I think that you are doing a great service to your country by doing this, and it is much appreciated. Thank you all again!
Pictured is me, Parris, Linda and Martyn sporting our t-shirts that were sent out to us from the Inter-National Hero to Hero.US campaign and the Red Deer Fire Fighters Association. Thank you to both organizations for the gifts! You are awesome!
Also pictured is Ron in his last Kandahar picture! You can tell by the picture how much stuff is floating around in the air, and who knows what we are inhaling into our lungs! woohoo. We’ll see you in a couple of months Ron, take care and we miss you already buddy, tell John I said hello.
Shayna is doing great with the legs. She has been dedicated to beating the odds and not getting a pin site infection, and is winning the battle. September 3rd is the magical day of getting the first external fixation device removed, and she is ready for that! The left leg fixation gets removed somewhere around mid-October. It’s neat that we are both going through a trying time for the past 7 months or so, me with the deployment and Shayna with the surgeries and we are both going to be ecstatic when this time is over. Shayna I love you and am very proud to call you my wife!
CASES:
I’m going to stop listing the cases and instead have a running total of types of causes and hours spent at the hospital per day. I’ve spoken with several people and they said that they generally skip over the case listings stating that it is a boring entry. I’m going to still keep a tally of surgeries completed and the country of origin of each patient if anyone is interested in seeing that, just ask me when I come to visit. Here we go:
15 AUG: 1 hour (we were called in to assist the Canadian team with several patients at one time)
16 AUG: 10 hours
18 AUG: 17 hours
20 AUG: 14 hours
22 AUG: 7 hours, huh? Woohoo!
# CAUSES OF INJURIES AS OF 22 AUG 09
91 GSW (GUNSHOT WOUND)
84 IED (IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE)
38 NBI (NON-BATTLE INJURY)
6 MINE
5 SVBIED (SUICIDE VEHICLE BOMBER)
5 SUICIDE BOMBER
6 ROCKET ATTACK
7 AIR STRIKE
2 MVA (MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT)
If anyone is interested in having me return to having the surgeries listed please leave me a message and I’ll be happy to list them once again.
Shayna once again I love and miss you very much, can’t wait to see you. Everyone else take care and keep in touch.
Dave
I wanted to give a shout out to the SUPPORT THE TROOPS OF HARTFORD, WI, HARTFORD VFW #8834, AMERICAN LEGION POST #19, PACK & SHIP OF HARTFORD, WI, SUPPORT THE TROOPS FRIENDS AND FAMILIES, ST. GABRIEL’S CHURCH RICHFIELD, WI, NORTHLAND MARKETING AND STARBUCKS IN WEST BEND, WI. Thank you all very much for the box that you sent out to me. It pretty much contained everything that I needed. Fantastic! I think that you are doing a great service to your country by doing this, and it is much appreciated. Thank you all again!
Pictured is me, Parris, Linda and Martyn sporting our t-shirts that were sent out to us from the Inter-National Hero to Hero.US campaign and the Red Deer Fire Fighters Association. Thank you to both organizations for the gifts! You are awesome!
Also pictured is Ron in his last Kandahar picture! You can tell by the picture how much stuff is floating around in the air, and who knows what we are inhaling into our lungs! woohoo. We’ll see you in a couple of months Ron, take care and we miss you already buddy, tell John I said hello.
Shayna is doing great with the legs. She has been dedicated to beating the odds and not getting a pin site infection, and is winning the battle. September 3rd is the magical day of getting the first external fixation device removed, and she is ready for that! The left leg fixation gets removed somewhere around mid-October. It’s neat that we are both going through a trying time for the past 7 months or so, me with the deployment and Shayna with the surgeries and we are both going to be ecstatic when this time is over. Shayna I love you and am very proud to call you my wife!
CASES:
I’m going to stop listing the cases and instead have a running total of types of causes and hours spent at the hospital per day. I’ve spoken with several people and they said that they generally skip over the case listings stating that it is a boring entry. I’m going to still keep a tally of surgeries completed and the country of origin of each patient if anyone is interested in seeing that, just ask me when I come to visit. Here we go:
15 AUG: 1 hour (we were called in to assist the Canadian team with several patients at one time)
16 AUG: 10 hours
18 AUG: 17 hours
20 AUG: 14 hours
22 AUG: 7 hours, huh? Woohoo!
# CAUSES OF INJURIES AS OF 22 AUG 09
91 GSW (GUNSHOT WOUND)
84 IED (IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE)
38 NBI (NON-BATTLE INJURY)
6 MINE
5 SVBIED (SUICIDE VEHICLE BOMBER)
5 SUICIDE BOMBER
6 ROCKET ATTACK
7 AIR STRIKE
2 MVA (MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT)
If anyone is interested in having me return to having the surgeries listed please leave me a message and I’ll be happy to list them once again.
Shayna once again I love and miss you very much, can’t wait to see you. Everyone else take care and keep in touch.
Dave
No comments:
Post a Comment