Iraq
The 3rd group Special Forces was planning
other military training missions throughout Africa as part of Bill Clinton’s
African Crisis Relief Initiative. She
would do missions similar to Eritrea, and couldn’t wait to go. But the Army had other plans. Her assignments officer told her that if she
hoped to advance further in the Army, she needed to go back to school. So,
again against her will, she put in her application. Otherwise, she would never
be promoted above major, no hopes for advancing. Goodbye, Third Group. Hello,
San Antonio, for a Master’s Degree in Public health.
Shortly before finishing her degree, their
beautiful daughter, Kristen, their only child, was born. Deanna hoped to stay in San Antonio, but again
the Army had other plans. They needed a
deputy commander for a vet detachment in Germany. Six weeks after Kristen was
born, they all left for a three year tour in Germany.
9/11
happened during her time in Germany. Her unit soon started preparing to be the
first vet detachment into Iraq. Just HOW quickly, she seemed to be a little
vague about. They would be in support of conventional forces. Special Forces
were in Afghanistan. She trained a year
for Iraq. However, her three year tour was up before they were to leave for
Iraq. She left for Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, training officers to be small
unit commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq. There she was promoted to Lieutenant
Colonel. After only a year in Texas, the
Army again said she had to move. They
wanted to send her to California.
Along about
that time, her long time friend who had just returned from Afghanistan decided
to retire as he had his 20 years. The unit he was assigned to was scheduled to
go to Iraq the following year. Most vets did not want to go, preferring to stay
in the US, so no one was jumping up and down to take his position. But Deanna felt she had spent her entire life
preparing for this, and staying in the US with all this going on, was just flat
boring. She was headed for Ft. Bragg again.
She spent a year training for Iraq, again.
But right before being deployed, a new General was put in charge. He started
moving out good men who had been training for a year for this mission, then he
began moving in his own friends who had no training. Deanna survived the cut,
so she deployed.
From a vet and a public health point of
view, there were lots of challenges in Iraq. There were many diseases which
could be transferred between the local animals and Soldiers, to include an
ongoing outbreak of rabies in which many Iraqis were dying. Soldiers love to keep pets, even though they
aren’t supposed to, so many were being exposed to this and other diseases. There were problems with getting safe food to
the troops as trucks carrying them were getting stuck and the refrigeration
didn’t always work. Military working
dogs which were critical in finding explosives were growing in numbers as the
military was learning that they were the best way to protect our troops from
the deadly explosives that claimed many Soldiers’ lives. In addition, there were water safety
problems; careless handling of medical waste, and strange deadly organisms
invaded many hospitals. There were limited vet and preventive medicine units to
do this huge mission and the mission was growing month by month.
Deanna and
the rest of the public health team that she worked with set about trying to
find a ways to reduce these health threats to keep our Soldiers safe and to use
our vet and preventive medicine resources in the most effective way
possible. After about five months, they
were finally starting to see progress and some of their programs put in
place. But there were some who felt they
were “making waves” as it made some of the contractors do what they were
supposed to be doing.
The
General in charge was a hospital man, and focused more on treating combat
casualties rather than worrying about the infectious diseases. He did not see
the preventive medicine mission as being important, and didn’t like the waves
they were causing. He wound up sending
the entire preventive medicine staff home halfway through their tour, and all
of the programs that they got started fell apart. The general wound up wasting
maybe a year and a half of her life, in Deanna’s estimation.
I talked to Deanna when she arrived home.
She was depressed. “I’ve spent my entire career training for this moment. Then
when I got there, I was not allowed to do it. We were told, it’s too dangerous
out there now, and made to sit around in the green zone far too much.”
continued - conclusion in four days.
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