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| Bagram cityscapes outside Entry Control Point 3 (ECP3) |
One of my favorite movies of all time is called "The Replacements," starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman. It's the story of a bunch of "scab" football players that fill in for an NFL team during a professional football player strike. It is a comedy. A few weeks ago a team from the 94th Combat Support Hospital - they are some of our replacements - were here in Afghanistan for a Pre-Deployment Site Survey.
This is a reconnaissance mission to determine what additional
learning and training they need to attain in the next few months before
they arrive for their 10 month deployment. It took them six days to get
here from Texas and they were visibly tired and frustrated when they
arrived in the middle of the night.
They came to see for themselves exactly what the current mission is and what we foresee as the emerging mission, since that changes based on the strategy of the war fighters. It was quite a beautiful thing to see a real person who will eventually take my place here so that I can return home.
"Eyes Wide Shut" is another appropriate movie title. They were overwhelmed trying to absorb the magnitude of our mission. We felt very prepared to orient them and the consensus was that our team is insufficiently staffed for the work we do and that the future of medical operations in this theatre is fluid and changing constantly.
It was bittersweet to see them leave, knowing that they won't be back for another two months. They have a three-week exercise at Ft. Lewis, Wash., just like we did, and then it will take them about a week to travel back to Afghanistan. They will end up leaving their families just before Christmas.
Now they have left theatre and I'm hoping they will return with some excitement and a lot of energy. The job is stressful and the hours long, and the months even longer. However, compared to the average fighting man and woman here, our life is rather easy. We are warm, dry, and well fed, which is better than many.
My replacement decided that he isn't the right Colonel for the job. I think I changed his mind; I get to leave on time regardless.
Photos: Bagram cityscape outside Entry Control Point 3 (ECP3)
