Pfc. Amy Bigger of Company A, 203rd Forward Support Battalion, and other soldiers wait for casualties shortly after Wednesday morning's car-bomb blast outside the gate of Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba, Iraq. The explosions killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 17. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Pfc. Amy Bigger of Company A, 203rd Forward Support Battalion, and other soldiers wait for casualties shortly after Wednesday morning's car-bomb blast outside the gate of Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba, Iraq. The explosions killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 17. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Capt. Cheryle Hartley of Nantui Glo, Pa., removes shrapnel from the leg of an Iraqi soldier Wednesday at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba, Iraq, while other soldiers from Company C, 203rd Forward Support Battalion assist her. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
Soldiers from Company C, 203rd Forward Support Battalion, treat casualties Wednesday morning. (Charlie Coon / S&S)
BAQOUBA, Iraq — At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the newly arrived soldiers were scheduled to rehearse a mass-casualty situation at their medical facility. Practice makes perfect, after all.
But about an hour before the rehearsal was to start, a car bomb exploded near their front gate. The rehearsal was called off, and a real-life drama unfolded. The soldiers worked through the controlled chaos and learned some lessons along the way.
“You never know when it’s going to happen or where,” said Capt. Al Paul, commander of “Charlie Med,” Company C, 203rd Forward Support Battalion, which operates the Teal Medical Facility at Forward Operating Base Warhorse.
Four Iraqi army soldiers were killed in the blast; three died instantly and the fourth died on one of the clinic’s operating tables.
Most of the 55 soldiers who make up Charlie Med and an additional 36 who belong to attached, related units arrived in Iraq in January or February as part of the 42nd Infantry Division’s task Force Liberty, which now oversees operations in north-central Iraq.
Their baptism by fire began soon after the 8:43 a.m. blast was heard, and radio crackle began reporting casualties.
“It’s not a scheduled event,” Paul said. “We had personnel all over. They still have other duties. Some have to pull [security]. We had others who were teaching a class.”
Within two hours, 17 Iraqi troops who were wounded were stabilized. Some were evacuated by helicopter to an Air Force Theatre Hospital in nearby Balad. Others were treated and returned to duty.
“We did better than I thought we were going to,” said 21- year-old Spc. Penney Gainer of Cary, Ill., one of the first to arrive at Warhorse’s front gate, where the victims were being brought.
“It was mine and a lot of people’s first time we’d seen a mass- casualty [event] like that,” she said.
An hour after the clinic had cleared, the soldiers of Charlie Med reviewed what went right and made suggestions on how to improve. They graded their effort a B-plus.
Among the adjustments they said they would make before “next time”:
Post guards to restrict the flow of people into and out of the small clinic as the casualties were being treated;Have rooms better marked so stretcher-bearers would know where to carry the wounded;Be better prepared to handle additional casualties in case of multiple attacks occurred in rapid succession.They also discussed ways personnel other than doctors and medics — such as supply specialists and those who maintain the medical equipment — could assist in a more preplanned way.
Afterward, some of the soldiers said that Wednesday’s real-life emergency gave them experience and taught lessons they could have never learned in the rehearsal that had been planned.
“When I see a patient on the table and the wounds they have and the blood on my gloves, it always gets me, even if they’re not wearing the same uniform,” said Spc. Linda Perez, 21, of Copperas Cove, Texas.
“You can’t practice [like that] on a fake patient.”
