Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Good Evening Everyone,

I am posting some pictures from our Christmas Eve and Christmas day celebrations. I played Santa Clause for the Christmas Eve party and then again for the Base Parade. The padded suit was hot and scratchy but it was a great deal of fun passing out candy and cookies to the soldiers.












Picture 1: Bryan asleep on Christmas day. He got up early to open his gifts but before he could make it to the tree, he grabbed his blanket and he doggy and fell asleep. And he was on duty.


Picture 2: Bryan is getting ready to go to lunch, but something isn't right. Look at his hat. Andy had taken his hat over to the ladies who sew patches on our uniforms and had Bryan's rank sewed on sideways. It isn't the first time Andy has played a practical joke. I will tell you about his antics later.









Picture 1: This is our vaccination section and a few of our medics. They were all in the holiday mood.

Picture: Yes indeed! SFC Ski is actually working. We had switch day at work on Christmas. The leadership took the place of the enlisted troops and we let them have the day off. Here Sgt. Ski is actually scrubbing the base boards as Lt. Clifton-Mason looks on in disbelief.










Picture 1: Here is Sgt. Easom. The pictures here were taken by her. She is are unit photographer and an awesome medic.

Picture 2: Here is Lt. Nott, Lt. Latino, and Cpt. McFarland. You can see how hard they are working on switch day. It really is the same work they do on every work day.











Picture 1: Here is Sgt. Beechler in the background, Corporal Gilbert in the foreground and then there is Spc. Buchmeier giving his thumbs up. Buchmeier just returned from Germany. I sent him up there to have a septoplasty. He is a professional wrestler, who wrestles under the name, 'The Physical Fascination Brandon Bishop.' If you go on YouTube you can see some of his matches. He is actually the nicest guy I have ever met.

Picture 2: Here Spc. Burke. I think she is a little suspicious of getting a cookie from me. I think she thinks I laced the cookies with Ex-Lax.














Picture 1: Here is our supply guy, Sgt. Hougeson.

Picture 2: I think Bryan has some issues. I had to walk around all night with him clinging to me.














Picture 1: These are our optometry crew.














Picture 1: Here Buchmeier is having wrestling flashbacks.

Picture 2: Dr. Jose Baez on the left and Tim our RN is on the right.















Picture 1: Lt. Latino and Santa

Picture 2: Here is Mike and Dave. They both still believe that Santa Clause is real. It's just sad, really.













Picture 1: This is our XO Cpt. Schroeder

Picture 2: SSG Thomas. He one of our four horsemen whose job it is to protect the leadership element of our company from all enemies foreign and domestic and they are also in charge of appropriating equipment that we can't get through appropriate channels. Anyone who has been in the Army knows how valuable guys like this can be.















Picture 1: Here is Spc. Hudnell and our Christmas Tree. He is like 6'8 and had a scholarship to the Citadel and turned it down to go to a civilian college. He is getting ready to be commissioned as a second lieutenant. He is going to be a quality officer.
Picture 2: Here is our parade vehicle. It is an FLA, (Ambulance). It wasn't the most comfortable ride in the world but here Santa and his helpers are tossing out candy.
Well, these are some of our Christmas activities. I want you all to know that the troops here are well cared for and are doing well. We are a family here and our closeness helps to take away the ache that we all have from not being at home. Thank you for your support and kind letters and care packages. We always cherish a word from home.
God Bless,

Jeff

Friday, December 26, 2008

Linus Van Pelt says it all...

Good Evening Everyone,

I hope that you all had a very nice Christmas. Our unit had a nice Christmas Eve celebration and then on Christmas day our post had a parade. I will share those pictures with you tomorrow. But for tonight as I reflect back on another Christmas I can't help but to think that somehow the true meaning of Christmas has been lost and I am afraid it may never be found. So, I was wondering if anyone even remembers the true meaning of Christmas? I thought about it almost all day when out of the blue I remembered a scene from 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' Towards the end of the program, Charlie Browns sad tree had been decorated to look very pretty. Linus decides to stand up in front of everyone at the party and remind his friends what the true meaning of Christmas was all about. Here is what Linus said,

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

"Out of the mouth of babes the truth is spoken."

God Bless that Linus, he may have been the last person in America to be able to tell the truth about Christ on National T.V.

I have nothing more to add to Linus' Scripture recital. He has said it all.

May the Lord touch your lives and may your holiday season be safe and joyful.

Jeff



Sunday, December 21, 2008

Forgiveness and Redemtion

Tonight I want to share a few things that have been weighing heavily on my heart lately. We have had some soldiers that have gotten into trouble lately and as the Army so often has to do, they were punished. But the military is not interested in punishing soldiers just for the sake of punishing. The military is more concerned with corrective training that is designed to redeem a soldier. The military does not give up on a troop because they have made an error in judgment. The military understands and encourages soldiers to overcome their set backs and bring him/her back around to becoming an effective and productive troop.

I was thinking about the measures that we use to redeem our soldiers when I thought about the redemtion that came from the great sacrifice that Christ made for us. In Romans 3:21-26 Paul says, "But now a righteousness from God apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonment through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

When I look at what the Lord did to redeem us from our sins, I can't help but to wonder why we can't offer forgiveness and redemption to those who have done us wrong or has hurt us in someway or another.

In your life, you will have someone who will dissapoint you and let you down and conversely, in your life, you will dissapoint someone and let them down. Sometimes the hurt and pain of the betrayal of trust will last years and can become difficult to overcome. But, when we look at the hurt that our sins have done to our Lord by all rights He should punish us and bring judgement upon us. However, what did He do? He sent his Son to die for our sins so that we can be redeemed and so that we could come back into His presence.

What a lesson for us. If you have hurt someone, seek forgiveness from that person and at the very least make an effort to redeem yourself. If someone has hurt you and comes to you asking for forgiveness, give them a chance to earn your trust and allow them the opportunity for redemption. You can bet that a person who seeks your forgiveness will devote themselves to earning your trust and will do anything to regain your friendship. God puts people in our lives for a reason. If someone comes to you to seek out your favor, why do you turn them away? Does Christ turn away those who seek Him? No. And this should be our example.

How you treat others is a direct measure of your character. We can profess to be Christians and attend church and do all of those things that give us the appearance of being a disciple, but fail to follow the example of Christ, then we are poor Witnesses and we lose credibility. God took Paul, who was responsible for the persecution and death of a number of Christians, and made him, perhaps, one of the most effective disciples of Christ. Imagine what your forgiveness and offer of redemption can do? God changes hearts and molds people so that they are not the same person that they were years before. He is always moving us forward. Allow your heart to reconsider past hurts and offer forgiveness and redemption when the opportunity presents itself. Why would you not want to reconcile a past friendship or right a wrong when possible? Forgiveness and redemption are the basic fundemental principals of our Christian faith. I pray that this message is well received and touches your heart. Christ is our Savior and the Holy Spirit is our guide, please fill yourself with both.

Remember the joy of past friendships and the excitement of companionship with those whom you have loved. What will it take to change your heart?

"I don't have alot of prospects that can give some kind of peace.
there is nothing left to cling to that can bring me sweet release."

Jars of Clay...Work

Let Christ be your sweet release.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Captain McFarland and Surgical Training.

Good Evening Everyone,

Well we had the honor of participating in the promotion ceremony for Bryan. He was promoted to the rank of Captain. We held a small ceremony outside in the area behind our clinic. He was a Lieutenant for 17 years so we are happy to see him finally move up. Just kidding. He is an awesome soldier and provider and a good friend to me. Secondly, today Bryan decided to do some training for a couple of our troops so he decided that I needed to have a couple of inclusionary cyst cut out from under my scalp. We spend a great deal of time training our medics as many of these troops do not have medical occupations in the civilian world. So, tonight Bryan taught two of our medics how to perform a local anesthetic, and how to suture. I was glad to have these cyst removed so it worked out well for them to practice on me. We don't publish pictures of any procedures or medical care that we perform on our patients as it would not be appropriate. So, you get to see the minor things that we do on eachother.

The two medics that you will see in the photos below are Samantha Hatfield and Daniel Troxel. As you can see Captain McFarland is right next to them, closely supervising and teaching some basic techniques. In the civilian world medics would not be allowed to perform such procedures. But in the military, medics have increased responsibilities because often times they are out in the field alone and responsible for the care of large number of troops. So without further delay, I will show your our pictures.













Picture 1: Mike is pinning Bryans rank on his uniform as I read the Presidental Order authorizing his promotion. Bryan was Mike's student at Butler University. Mike is the one who recruited Bryan into the officer corps.

Picture 2: Here Bryan is in front of the platoon after the pinning.
Picture 3: Everyone then shook Bryan's hand after the promotion. Here he is talking to Captain Ha who is our optometrist and Sgt. French who is our supply Sgt.









Picture 1&2: Here Bryan is teaching Hatfield how to perform a local.
Picture 3: Hatfield makes her initial incision.











Picture 1: Bryan is showing Hatfield how to be a little more aggresive when making an incision.
Picture 2: Here Troxel has stepped in to remove the second cyst.
Picture 3: Troxel is injecting the lidocaine.










Picture 1,2&3: Troxel is eager to learn and gives a big thumbs up. The last picture Bryan is demonstrating how to make an incision that follows the dermatones so that when the wound is closed, the skin comes together much easier.

















Picture 1&2: Finishing Up.
Picture 3: All done. Bryan and our medics did such a good job that you can hardly see the incisions. I have a little bald spot on my scalp from the previous cyst removal that Bryan did for me a couple of weeks ago.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Thanks for Remembering...

Good Evening Everyone,

I want to let everyone know how much I appreciate your cards and letters of support. It is a rare day that I don't receive a Christmas card or a letter of encouragement from you. In fact, I receive letters and cards from people that I have never met. My mother-in-laws church has really showed great support. I get a letter almost daily from the Central Christian Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. It is amazing how nice it is to receive a letter in this environment. As you can imagine we are really isolated here, so letters from home are really appreciated.

I also want to thank my friends that I have here. The providers that I work with have really been a great source of joy for me. I am blessed to have peers who look out for me and who have ensured that I am successful in my job. The truth is that Mike, Travis, Bryan, Jose, Rod, Andy, and Dave are all much brighter and much more capable men then myself and yet they have taken the role of providing me wise counsel from behind the scenes. I am so honored to have them here and in my life. They provide me the comradarie that is well known among soldiers. I can't imagine what this tour would have been like if I hadn't had these guys here with me. Tim, our nurse and our clinical director has been an awesome right hand man. He has kept the clinic running smoothly and provides much needed guidance for our medics. He is constantly in the training mode and is on a mission to improve the clinical skills of each of our medics.

As a former nurse, I can tell you that nurses are so under appreciated and are often times silent servers. Some of the people that I admire the most are nurses and my life has been greatly and positively affected by a few nurses who I have been blessed to have had a relationship.

Our medics are awesome. We see 2500 patients a month in our clinic and our vaccination clinic has been vaccinating over 3000 soldiers and civilians a month. Our ambulance section is making hundreds of runs a month and has been responsible for most of the medical transport on our entire base.

I want to share with you all that we are in a very secure area and are extremely blessed to have some semblance of safety. Three years ago this base was a dangerous place to be. They were mortared daily and the road side bombs were a daily event. Now we may have 3-4 mortar attacks a week and few roadside bombs a week.

The Army has a relatively new vehicle called and MRAP. It is a heavily armored transport vehicle that is designed to divert the roadside bomb's blast away from the vehicle. A few weeks ago I had four soldiers who had been hit by a roadside bomb and they were in an MRAP. They all walked away. They were banged up but we were able to manage their care in our clinic. Had they been in a Humvee, they would most certainly have perished.

Well, I will close this post by saying that you are all in my prayers. I hope you will all have a great Christmas holiday and that the Lord sees you safely through as you travel to see your families. God is good and His love is unconditional.

I hope you are all well,

God Bless

Jeff

Monday, December 15, 2008

Good Evening Everyone,

Today we had our ceremony where our unit was awarded our combat patch. All soldiers in the Army wear their unit patch on their left arm as a part of their uniform. Soldiers who have served in a combat zone are allowed to put their unit patch on their right arm. It is a pretty big deal for us and today we had a company ceremony and officially patched our troops. Our battalion commander and battalion sergeant major came down to show their support.

The ceremony starts with the Commander calling formation. He patches the Executive Officer who in turn orders platoon leaders to patch their soldiers. As the senior officer for the medical officers I was honored to patch them. Actually, I must share something with you. I am the Officer in Charge of this motley crew, not because I am anything special, but because no one else wanted to do it. I tried to get Mike to be in charge before we deployed but he respectfully decline with these eloquent words..."Are you out of your mind?" So here is the ceremony.














Picture 1-2: Our company in formation ready to start.
Picture 3: This is the officer staff. From L-R is Andy Altman, Mike Roscoe, Bryan McFarland, Travis Welch, and Tim Nott. I am out front wondering where the rest of the officers are. It always happens during formations that the enlisted troops are always on time but the officer staff seems to come when they please. Missing is Jose Baez, and Rod McPhee.


















Picture 1: The Battalion Commander and the Battalion Sgt. Major
Picture 2: Just us
Picture 3: This is Major Hawes our CO and Our XO Cpt. Schroeder.















Picture 1: Finally all of the officers show up. Here we are goofing around wondering what we are suppose to do next. We are like sheep, we have to be told where to go and what to do.

Picture 2-3: Here I am patching the officers. Travis and Mike already had a combat patch and so this is their second patch.


















Picture 1: This is the Sgt. Major patching Sgt. Easom. She is our unit photographer and responsible for most of the pictures on this blog.

Picture 2: Here Tim is patching Corporal Owen. Bryan had a moment of giddiness and stuck his head in the picture. He's got great teeth.

Picture 3: Some of our medics could not attend the ceremony as they had to cover the clinic. So, I went in and patched them. Here I am patching Spc. Haney.




















Picture 1: Here is the four amigo's. L-R: Travis, Myself, Bryan, and Mike.
Picure 2: The entire medical officer staff. Front Row L-R: Lt. McFarland, Major Altman, Myself. Back Row L-R: Cpt. Roscoe, Major McPhee, Lt. Welch, Lt. Nott, and Major Baez.