BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — The warfighter had been blinded in combat and he wanted to call his mother before leaving Iraq.

Capt. Gricel Rodriguez, a clinical nurse at the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility, dialed the number for him.

“It’s not always about giving medication,” she said. “He got to talk to his mom.”

Another soldier simply wanted his face washed, fearing small shards of the glass that wounded him still were in his hairline. Rodriguez dampened a cloth and obliged.

“That, to me, is nursing,” she said.

The last piece of Iraq that many wounded GIs may see is at the CASF, a canvas facility on the flight line at Balad Air Base. It’s where sick, injured or wounded warriors are monitored and prepared for the next leg of their journey.

They come to the CASF from every military medical facility in Iraq by helicopter, airplane or convoy. Some come from the Air Force Theater Hospital 1.4 miles away at Logistics Support Area Anaconda, the Army’s side of the same sprawling base.

“We stage them until the next flight, which can be anywhere from 12 to 48 hours,” said Master Sgt. Nancy Peck.

Some flights are regularly scheduled, but when the need arises, Peck said, more flights are added.

“Our main job is to ensure they get the best care possible while they’re here,” said Lt. Col. John Lopardi, the commander.

The staff of 60 includes two flight doctors who work shifts of 24 hours on, 24 hours off. The nurses spend their 12-hour shifts providing needed medications to their charges and ensuring they are pain free.

They keep an eye out for a patient whose condition worsens to the point he shouldn’t be on a flight.

Lopardi said a young patient “started to go south" just two nights earlier but was quickly given CPR, stabilized and still made the scheduled flight.

During the recent offensive in Fallujah, the CASF was swamped with patients. During the battle, about 425 U.S. troops and 43 Iraqi soldiers were wounded. More than 50 U.S. servicmembers died from the fighting.

“I’ve never given so much morphine in my life,” Rodriguez said.

Peck said, “As soon as we would empty our beds, the hospital would send them over to empty their beds.”

The recreation area was turned into a ward — couches out, beds in.

“We were bursting at the seams here,” Lopardi said.

During those times, the CASF needs help. Lopardi said. Volunteers mainly help to carry litters — from helicopter to a bus, from a bus to the CASF, from a bus to the airplane.

One of the 150 volunteers currently willing to work is 1st Lt. Glen Smith, deputy airfield operations officer for the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron. He stopped logging in his volunteer hours one month ago, he said.

“That’s not why I’m here,” he said.

Some nights, he’s needed for 15 minutes. Other times, he might spend several hours at the facility.

“It keeps it real,” he said of his time helping wounded troops.

The CASF staff is out of MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., coming from several specialties.

“I didn’t know what a CASF was,” said Rodriguez. “As a [trauma] nurse, I didn’t know.”

Before shipping out to Iraq in September, the team prepared for its deployment at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. It will remain until January.

The brief time spent with the patients is heartwarming and humbling, team members said. The soldiers and Marines tell them how good it feels to sleep on a pillow or take a shower.

“The best medicine for these patients is communication, just talking,” said Lopardi. “They want to talk about what happened.”

“Oh, my God, the stories they tell,” said Rodriguez.

Hearing tales of life in the midst of combat, she said, makes her appreciate her life at Balad Air Base, with its air-conditioned rooms, hot showers and relative safety.

The effort has validated her Air Force career, she said, completing the missing piece in the puzzle. She owes that, too, she said, to the people who pass through her facility.

“They’re our heroes,” she said.

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