Coming Home

Military travel is almost always long and arduous. The trip home from Afghanistan certainly qualified as such. I spent 3 relatively peaceful days in Kyrgystan at Manas Air Base. It was absolutely necessary to have some down time before the long trip home. To the credit of the military, they have built in this time at Manas as part of the deployment. I felt a lot of the deployment tension easing over those 72 hours. It was fun to shoot the breeze with people and have some laughs. I was able to hang out with my good friend Geoff Cooper. He is a family doctor I know from residency who was deployed to Manas. His time there was very different than mine at Bagram. Horseback riding and kayaking are just a few of the things the folks at Manas are able to do in their time there. Now that is what I call a good deployment! Before leaving Manas, I was able to get a fabulous back massage from a local lady named Lena. It cost me $10 for 30 minutes. I tipped her $15 which apparently is a lot of money there. Lena gave me a kiss on the cheek. Oh Lena! I felt the best I had in probably a year.

The trip home began abruptly. We had a show time at the terminal of approximately 0500. But, 130 marines had a different agenda. A small group of us Air Force guys were sharing a tent with these fine gentlemen. At 0230 their sergeants began screaming at the top of their lungs. The lights were turned on and chaos ensued. Apparently, it was important for them to act like they were in Times Square at this crazy hour. There was no reason for this at all because they were not getting on the same plane as us and to my knowledge there were no other planes taking off that morning. Oh well. I thought about pulling rank on one of their sergeants. But, the fact that they had a plethora of semi automatic weapons readily available was the deciding factor. I kept my mouth shut up, packed up, and left with the rest of the Air Force guys.

Our first stop on the way home was in Turkey at Incirlik Air Base. We were there for a few hours refueling and picking up more passengers. The summer is a busy time for moving in the military. Various families joined us on the way to the states. We were able to eat some turkish food there which was nice. My belly was full as we headed off to Germany. The flight across Europe was pretty easy. I could not help but notice green trees as far as the eye could see as we descended into Ramstein Air Base. This is something none of us had seen for months. The stay at Ramstein was a bit odd. We were allowed to stroll through the terminal for about 10 minutes. Then we had to hurry up and get back in line. It was yet another security screening. Our identification was checked about a half dozen times. The German security agent took away my deoderant because it was 4 ounces. It was the only way for me to control the overwhelming body odor that happens on a transcontinental flight. Too bad for the passenger next to me! We were then quarantined like animals in a large room for 2 hours which is standard procedure for some reason. A large amount of families also joined us for this flight. Screaming babies were abundant.

The flight across the Atlantic was smooth. However, about 5 hours into the trip I noticed a woman in distress at the front of the plane. I approached her and immediately noticed her gravid uterus. She stated calmly that she was contracting every 2 minutes! What? Excuse me? Holy -----!!!!! This is not a trauma patient I told myself as I tried to remember what to do with a contracting 34 week pregnant lady. After all, it had been over 3 years since I delivered a baby. 6 months of shattered bones, amputated limbs, and open abdomens had not prepared me for this. I asked her a few questions. Luckily, she did not have any major abnormalities that were red flags for disaster. The head flight attendant then asked me point blank if we needed to divert the aircraft to Nova Scotia. After all, we were still over the Atlantic! 250 people wanted to get home that day. I was not about to stop this unless absolutely necessary. My answer was no. We had several other family doctors on the plane to help with this crazy situation. Also, we had a labor and delivery nurse named Lieutenant D whom I worked with for the past 6 months at Bagram. She had not dealt with a pregnant patient in a long time. Now was her chance.

Lieutenant D had the patient lay down and drink lots of water. She was able to calm the patient in a way that I could not. 30 minutes later the patient was still contracting every 2 minutes. I suggested checking her cervix for dilation. Lieutenant D talked me out of it. Her instincts told her that this would pass. She was 100% correct. As we descended into Baltimore, the contractions slowed down to every 5 minutes. Our 34 week pregnant patient was feeling good. There would be no delivery at 30,000 feet! Crisis averted. The plane landed. The paramedics came to the gate. The patient was immediately taken to the hospital. I proceeded to baggage claim thanking the good lord the entire way.

Arriving back in the United States of America after a deployment is an amazing feeling. Euphoria is the best word to describe it. I had to stay the night in Baltimore which was fine by me. I took multiple showers in my sparkling bathroom, had a belgium waffle for breakfast, and went for a jog through a suburb of Baltimore. It was relaxing. By mid morning I was ready to continue on to my home in Charleston. I could not help but notice the busy people at the airport talking on their cell phones and rushing through the day. They were all blistfully unaware that I was on my way home from the most difficult experience of my professional life. After the plane landed in Charleston, I walked slowly through the terminal. My knees were weak as I hugged my sister Annie. There was a group of my friends and colleagues there to welcome me home. It was emotional. It felt great to be home again after this long deployment. I felt immensely grateful. Coming home after a long deployment is like nothing else.