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Authors: Jennifer Clark
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real difference to a population of people, specifically the women and little girls, that had no previous healthcare. But this opportunity did not come without cost. Being away from family for six months was cost enough, but it was dangerous as well. Some of the potential places they were asking me to go to were extremely active with Taliban and there was a very real possibility I could encounter their actions firsthand.
I knew once this experience was over, I would never want to come back. That voice deep inside my gut was telling me on this date, in the year 2011, it would be time for me to turn in my combat boots and begin a new life. My priorities were different now. They constantly ingrained in us we had to put the mission first, before anything, and some people are able to do that for twenty years and beyond. I couldn’t anymore. My family was much too important to me. I was proud to be able to say I had spent time in Afghanistan and made my contribution, but life was too short, and I knew I couldn’t spend much more of mine making these sacrifices.
This day was the most fitting anniversary of my commissioning. I received a message from a General that made all of the thoughts I had been feeling for such a long time okay for me to feel.
CHAPTER 9
Day 28
Final Destination Revealed
25 May 2008
The Special Forces Groups finally made the switch and we met the majority of the people who would be in charge of the Med Shed. They all seemed nice, not at all the “cocky” guys we had been told to expect. The man in charge was a Family Practice Physician we all learned to call “Doc”. Once the new group was settled in, we got official word of where we were going. After one month of waiting….we were assigned to Firebase Anaconda. It was the more violent of the two firebases in the Uruzgan Province. The location we had suspected was now certain. It was a very dangerous area, but we were informed the clinic had already been well established and were reassured we would be well taken care of.
I was also informed Becky would be accompanying me. I had grown to like her very much and respected her eagerness to learn and grow as a medic. My initial impression of her back in our ACST training, prior to the deployment, was validated. I knew we would work well together and had pushed to get her assigned to go with me. We still had no definite date of departure, but it tentatively would be in the next seven to ten days.
As the location of our destination was revealed, word spread throughout the camp, and Becky and I faced shocked faces and reactions of disbelief. “They are sending YOU to THAT place? Are you kidding?”
The more we heard that reaction, the more uneasy we became. We were asked to conduct an interview for Public Relations requested by the Group Commander to discuss the Female Treatment Team (FTT) and our role in it. The interview apparently was for a press release to disclose the valuable asset the FTT was to both the Afghanistan people and our forces in their country. The PR representative said she would likely follow the press release with a full article about us in the future and asked for our contact information to follow up. She asked us questions on what we were feeling, knowing we would be the only females out there in such a forward location, and what it meant to us personally to know we were going to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
As I answered her questions, it hit me just how big this was. Yes, it was potentially very dangerous but it was an experience of a lifetime. If, God forbid, something did happen to me out there, I felt I could take comfort in knowing I was making a difference in the most direct way imaginable.
After the interview we finished talking with our leadership and took in all the stories of previous experiences and advice they had to offer. “An important thing for you both to remember is to avoid wearing perfume all together when you are out there,” said
I knew once this experience was over, I would never want to come back. That voice deep inside my gut was telling me on this date, in the year 2011, it would be time for me to turn in my combat boots and begin a new life. My priorities were different now. They constantly ingrained in us we had to put the mission first, before anything, and some people are able to do that for twenty years and beyond. I couldn’t anymore. My family was much too important to me. I was proud to be able to say I had spent time in Afghanistan and made my contribution, but life was too short, and I knew I couldn’t spend much more of mine making these sacrifices.
This day was the most fitting anniversary of my commissioning. I received a message from a General that made all of the thoughts I had been feeling for such a long time okay for me to feel.
CHAPTER 9
Day 28
Final Destination Revealed
25 May 2008
The Special Forces Groups finally made the switch and we met the majority of the people who would be in charge of the Med Shed. They all seemed nice, not at all the “cocky” guys we had been told to expect. The man in charge was a Family Practice Physician we all learned to call “Doc”. Once the new group was settled in, we got official word of where we were going. After one month of waiting….we were assigned to Firebase Anaconda. It was the more violent of the two firebases in the Uruzgan Province. The location we had suspected was now certain. It was a very dangerous area, but we were informed the clinic had already been well established and were reassured we would be well taken care of.
I was also informed Becky would be accompanying me. I had grown to like her very much and respected her eagerness to learn and grow as a medic. My initial impression of her back in our ACST training, prior to the deployment, was validated. I knew we would work well together and had pushed to get her assigned to go with me. We still had no definite date of departure, but it tentatively would be in the next seven to ten days.
As the location of our destination was revealed, word spread throughout the camp, and Becky and I faced shocked faces and reactions of disbelief. “They are sending YOU to THAT place? Are you kidding?”
The more we heard that reaction, the more uneasy we became. We were asked to conduct an interview for Public Relations requested by the Group Commander to discuss the Female Treatment Team (FTT) and our role in it. The interview apparently was for a press release to disclose the valuable asset the FTT was to both the Afghanistan people and our forces in their country. The PR representative said she would likely follow the press release with a full article about us in the future and asked for our contact information to follow up. She asked us questions on what we were feeling, knowing we would be the only females out there in such a forward location, and what it meant to us personally to know we were going to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
As I answered her questions, it hit me just how big this was. Yes, it was potentially very dangerous but it was an experience of a lifetime. If, God forbid, something did happen to me out there, I felt I could take comfort in knowing I was making a difference in the most direct way imaginable.
After the interview we finished talking with our leadership and took in all the stories of previous experiences and advice they had to offer. “An important thing for you both to remember is to avoid wearing perfume all together when you are out there,” said
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