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BASRAH, Iraq – The San Antonio-based 162nd Area Support Medical Company, Texas Army National Guard, is the first unit of its kind to provide various types of medical care to U.S. service members stationed around the Basrah province.
“An area support medical company is the minimal medical element that you would bring into a theater to start doing patient treatment,” said 1st Sgt. Jose Pena, the company first sergeant for the 162nd ASMC. “The fact that we have the 911th Forward Surgical Team makes us a Level II+ treatment facility. So we are like a smaller troop medical clinic because of the surgical team and our capabilities to provide emergency medical care.”
The 162nd has a number of treatment options that the standard area support medical company does not: a forward surgical team, women’s health clinic, pharmacy, and even emergency medical services, all of which makes this Texas-based unit an invaluable asset to the men and women stationed at COB Basra.
“We pretty much run the emergency medical services like you would find in the civilian world,” said Sgt. Kyle Bloodworth, an evacuation non-commissioned officer with the medical company. “Anybody that calls in and needs to come to the hospital for any reason, we go out and bring him or her in. We also assist in the fixed-wing or rotary-aircraft evacuations if there is a patient that needs to go out using those vehicles.”
The 77 soldiers of the 162nd started their training in early 2010 with numerous field-training exercises, rotations at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, and finally a certification period at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Wash.
This training set the soldiers up for success when they assumed some of the medical missions left by their predecessors.
“When we first arrived in theater, the 162nd had to send detachments out to Bucca, Al Assad, and even… Kirkuk,” said Pena. “So we have been basically operating throughout the Iraq theater since we got here last year.”
When asked what was the most challenging aspect of their mission in Iraq Pena answered, “It was beyond a doubt the level of command and control involved with the number of soldiers spread out through the different areas of operation in Iraq.”
“We have done battlefield circulations as much as possible with the soldiers who are at other locations,” said the first sergeant. “We would visit our soldiers and try to keep them integrated in our company, even though they are away from the main body, so they still feel like they are part of us.”
With the reduction of U.S. Forces in Iraq, Maj. Scott Valley, the 162nd ASMC commander, has a different view on the challenges of this deployment.
“The biggest challenge for me was the drawdown,” said Valley. “Just working with all the issues from the drawdown like cutting the facilities staff to transitioning to the Department of State. Not to mention making sure the soldiers stay focused on the mission that is still there, even if they are not seeing a lot of customers.”
One way to combat the complacency that comes with a slower mission tempo is training. Many units across the Iraq theater conduct training as often as they can, from basic soldier skills to more specific job-related tasks.
“We do a lot of training, almost weekly, but then again a good piece is that we are still seeing about 800 soldiers a month for sick call, and then the labs and pharmacy sections are seeing about 1200,” said Valley. “So everybody is staying pretty busy.”
Looking back on the more than 10 months the 162nd has spent in Iraq, the commander says that their mission was very successful and the fact that they will be able to bring everybody home safely is something that nobody should forget, especially since the unit is relatively new to the Texas Army National Guard.
“We will be able to say that we took a unit, rebuilt it, and successfully completed a deployment all within the first two and half years of being a unit,” said Valley.
“I think it shows primarily that there isn’t a type of force that we are not able to deploy out of the Texas Army National Guard,” remarked Valley. “Realistically, I think the key thing to take away [from this deployment] is that there is nothing the Department of the Army cannot assign to the Texas National Guard that we cannot successfully accomplish.”
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2011 08:36 |
| Story ID: | 67350 |
| Location: | BASRA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 1,625 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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