Even as I sit here typing on the laptop I bought for my next deployment, I think about my past deployment to Iraq. I am a captain in the USAF. I served with the 332 Air Expeditionary Group. I am a medic and served as a nurse in an Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS) hospital. I was stationed at Tallil Air Base, a former Iraqi air base that we bombed and took over. I was there from dec 03 through march 04.

I want to share something hard that I endured as a nurse. I didn't experience combat or mortaring but I am deeply grateful for my comrades who do. Instead as a medic, I dealt with taking care of Iraqis that we had shot. I took care of an Iraqi that was shot as he jumped on an Army convoy.

It is very hard being a critical care nurse that was taught to save life at all cost, when your patient is someone the military has shot. I had to curb my anger and rage to provide the best care that I could. This is something that nobody has talked about in the numerous news stories and blogs, but it is shared by all military medics and taught to us in Law of Armed Conflict class.

I will be deploying again in January in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. I will be a critical care air transport nurse where I will be caring for ICU patients, mainly injured troops, while flying them to a higher echelon of medical care.

Thank you to all of you Army and Marine "grunts" who are in the trenches of war every day. I feel guilty that I didn't do what you did, and that I didn't share your experience of direct combat. I can never repay you. I hope I never see you, my injured comrade, but if I do, rest assured when you get to me, you will be taken care of by the best medics in the world!!!

Thanks.

David Whitehorn