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Keesler medic has vivid memories of deployment

  • Published
  • By Steve Pivnick
  • 81st Medical Group
KEESLER AFB, MISS. --  Tech. Sgt. Matthew Wiese has vivid memories of the nearly nine months he was deployed to Afghanistan.

Trained as an aerospace medical technician, he currently is a flight medicine technician with the 81st Aerospace Medicine Squadron Flight Medicine Flight. However, from November 2008-August 2009 he was the noncommissioned-officer-in-charge of medical operations for a 90-person provisional reconstruction team in a forward operating base close to the Pakistan border.

The Afghan tour was prefaced by three months of training.

"The first week was a trauma course at Fort Sam Houston (in San Antonio)," he said. "That was followed by almost three months of combat skills training at Fort Bragg (N.C.). The instructors were Army National Guard and Reserve members who were veterans of service in Iraq."

Sergeant Wiese said the PRT was a multi-service group with approximately 35 active duty Air Force, a team of eight Army reservists, a civil affairs team from California, plus an active-duty Army first sergeant. The remainder of the team was Illinois Army National Guard infantrymen. The Air Force contingent included six communications specialists, an administrative specialist, three civil engineers, a vehicle maintenance specialist, an armorer (who was in charge of the unit's weapons), "a couple of vehicle operators" and three medics (Sergeant Wiese, a lieutenant physician assistant and a senior airman medical technician).

He noted that two-thirds of the team was based at Bagram Air Base from which they conducted missions.

"The rest of us were at FOB (forward operating base) Morales-Frasier (named after soldiers who had been killed in action) which was manned by about 625 French troops and 80 Americans. They controlled a particular area of responsibility and anytime they went out on a civil affairs mission, we accompanied them."

Sergeant Wiese explained the PRT's primary mission was to act as "overall facilitators of the Afghan reconstruction. We had the money and had to monitor and facilitate how it was spent".

"We would go to meetings with village elders and tribal chiefs to find out what they needed, such as a new mosque or school, water well or waterway for irrigation. We would evaluate the needs, find local contractors, monitor the contract meetings and later ensure the contractors hired local villagers to actually do the work in order to help stimulate the local economy."

He added, "Once the work was completed, we'd evaluate it to ensure it was done correctly and then pay them."

As the team medic, Sergeant Wiese acted as their medical liaison with the Afghans.
"I would talk with a town's medical representative to find out their needs. I would take the information back to my leadership and try to accommodate the village's requirements, such as getting them much needed supplies and education."

The FOB's entire area of operations was considered a "hot zone."

"We had mortars for defense," Sergeant Wiese commented. "I was personally involved in a couple of incidents where we were fired on but we only returned fire once. But we always had Army helicopters and Air Force assets available to provide air cover. The PRT did get hit with an IED (improvised explosive device) once and a truck was blown up. Fortunately, no one was killed but the interpreter's leg was broken and the gunner, driver and truck commander all suffered concussions. Two more people in the back (including the PA) were banged around but were uninjured. This happened in early June and we were scheduled to return home about six weeks later."

He added that they were involved in a fire fight while convoying back to the IED location to pick up the damaged truck to escort it to Bagram.

"We rolled into an existing fire fight and helped alleviate the threat," Sergeant Wiese recalled.

He noted that their FOB was an hour-and-a-half drive from Bagram "but a seven-minute helicopter flight when we needed a medevac from the FOB."

"The 'bad guys' (insurgents) knew the PRTs were putting money into the economy so they avoided attacking us directly, probably because they realized they could come back later and take it from the locals."

There were a number of valleys surrounding the FOB. Sergeant Wiese mentioned the French troops, Afghan National Army (ANA) and U.S. Marines had cleared one and the PRT went out to "win the hearts and minds" of the local citizens right after the fighting stopped.

"We set up at a district center in a village building and conducted a two-day medical outreach for the villagers. We brought a couple of truckloads of medications and got the word out that the medics were there to help. We saw more than 670 patients and did some minor suturing and passed out medicine. Seems most of the complaints involved aches and pains so we gave them a lot of Motrin and antacids."

However, the event took an ugly turn at one point.

"At the end of the first day, as the sun was beginning to set, a fire fight broke out between the 'bad guys' and the ANA on the perimeter, about a kilometer from our location. A grandmother and her two grandchildren were wounded. An 8-12-year-old girl was brought to us. She had taken shrapnel to the back of her skull - a portion of her brain was exposed. We intubated her and cleaned the wound the best we could. Her 6-8-year-old brother had an AK-47 round that went through his left biceps. We started an IV and gave him pain medication. The grandmother took three AK rounds in her left thigh and we dressed her wounds.

"They were medevaced out to Bagram and the grandmother and grandson were discharged after about 12 hours. However, the granddaughter underwent extensive brain surgery. By chance, the only neurosurgeon in Afghanistan happened to be at Bagram at the time. The little girl coded once but was revived. After months of hospitalization, she was back up and walking with minor neurological deficits. We had saved her. All of us involved earned Army Achievement Medals."

Sergeant Wiese recalled another incident that occurred two weeks later at the same location.

"We had gone out on a six-day mission primarily to beautify the district center for the village leaders.

"On day four, in the late afternoon, we heard an explosion about a quarter mile across the valley. About 40 minutes later the first child was brought to me. I learned later six kids we playing with unexploded ordnance when it blew up, instantly killing two of them. The other four were brought to me and the senior airman med tech. We did a mass casualty process, triaging them. We were able to save three but one died of his injuries. He was too far gone - beyond my capability to save him. His face and throat were blown away; I couldn't find an airway.

"The other three, all between ages 5 and 13, had a variety of injuries. One had a hole in his forehead and his left eye was blown out. He had a couple of nicks on the rest of his body. We created an airway, started an IV, covered his eyes and stabilized him.
"Another required tourniquets on both legs. He had a sucking chest wound and holes in both lungs. We started IVs, covered the chest wound, conducted needle decompressions in each lung and stabilized him.

"The third had his lower jaw blown in half and a sucking chest wound as well which we treated accordingly and stabilized him as well. We were able to put a tube in and secure his airway.

"All three survived and were medevaced out. The boy who lost an eye was fitted with a prosthetic. The other two were discharged after spending a couple of weeks in the hospital."

While these were the most significant incidents Sergeant Wiese was involved with, he said he had also worked with the French medics at their aid station. He recounted that most of the patients they saw there were children.

"One case involved a 1-1/2-year old child who went into septic shock from severe burns suffered after pulling over a small stove onto her. After treating her initially for shock and getting her stabilized we transferred her to the Afghan hospital in Kabul for further treatment. We then saw her for follow up visits for debridement of her burned leg and foot.

"Another case was a kid shot with a shotgun after he had crossed another family's land while out to get water during the night. The landowner shot him thinking he was an insurgent. We spent some time removing BBs from his leg."

All told, during this deployment Sergeant Wiese participated in 120 combat patrols, including 35 "dismounted" patrols. Each time he went "outside the wire," he carried an extra 110 pounds of extra gear to include his body armor, two weapons and ammunition and trauma ruck.
Sergeant Wiese experienced a bit of a "flashback" when he picked up the latest issue (March-April) of AIRMAN magazine. The article on page 42 covers the senior airman who replaced him and he had trained.

This was his fourth deployment experience. He spent a tour in Kosovo and two to Qatar as an air evacuation crew member or patient movement controller. The Afghanistan deployment was his first as an "Army combat medic," he commented. And he would do it again "in a heartbeat."

SIDEBAR
Sergeant Wiese, who calls Lowden, Iowa, home, will mark 15 years of Air Force service on June 25. He has been at Keesler AFB since January 2007.

His wife Carla is a captain and Air Force critical care nurse currently working in the 81st Medical Operations Squadron Nephrology Clinic. They reside in Ocean Springs with daughter Alexis, 4-1/2.
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