To Camp Dwyer…
Posing with the I.C.U. staff at the Combat Army Support Hospital at Camp Dwyer the day of our departure after being presented or AAM’s…
After being at Camp Leatherneck for all of a week or so, we were tasked to help support the Army Combat Support Hospital in the southern part of the Helmand Province at Camp Dwyer…12 days on loan to the Army to be an ICU nurse. I felt like part of the Navy/Army-a.k.a. Narmy. Living conditions weren’t really the greatest. Our A/C would cut out during the day in the heat of the day…We worked 12-hour night shifts. You do the math…12 days of not so much sleep. We were promised to be flown back to Leatherneck on July 5th. Spending the 4th of July away from our company, in a new location, and in Afghanistan of all places…was interesting…I remember where I was last year. I was on President Obama’s front lawn at the White House, listening to him talk about bringing more troops home from Afghanistan and his plan to do so…Little did I know that I was going to soon be part of that one year later. How crazy is that? Independence Day, just like Memorial Day, took on a whole different meaning for me. I have been working with the warriors out here that have been fighting for that freedom. To be in Afghanistan during the 4th of July, despite the environment and being in a combat zone, was rewarding. At Dwyer, we took care of some of our own as well as locals. I truly reached my breaking point after taking care of a 21-year old enemy prisoner of war that had shot at our Marines. He ended up getting a gunshot wound to the chest and was in critical condition. Needless to say, it wasn’t the fact that he was a prisoner of war, it was the fact that he spit, disregarded me as a female, and treated me as if I was inferior to him. For once during this deployment, I have tasted what it’s like to be a female in this society…how awful is that? I found that my tolerance for this patient population had been becoming less and less. I missed being back home in the States, knowing that I was treated equally and that I have rights. In the eyes of these Afghani men, I was merely the female serving them-emptying his drains and urinals, medicating him, feeding him water, moving the position of his bed up and down…to me, he was one of my patients, another human being…not quite his perspective.
Looking back, I’m starting to feel more and more frustrated with this war and the politics. I’m okay with the fact that I have taken care of more local Afghani nationals, Afghan Army, Afghan National Police, etc…but it’s hard to wrap my mind around a culture that continues to de-humanize women! I’m not trying to get on a soap box here, but I felt it first hand in that I.C.U. that night.
This year, that is what Independence Day truly meant to me-the ability to think autonomously, pursue my ambitions, and to be regarded as a peer amongst men. I am free to do those things and for that I am grateful. We are headed back to Leatherneck today to be with the rest of our company, and I have never been more excited to be back with the Marines! Happy 4th of July to everyone back home and Italia! I love and miss you all!
