US Military Surgeons in Afghanistan Successfully Remove Incendiary Round

From an Afghan National Army soldier's skull.

The 2.5-inch unexploded ordnance became lodged in the patient's scalp during an improvised explosive device attack. But when the patient arrived for treatment, doctors thought it was only a piece of scrap metal, the Air Force reported.

"Initially, I thought it was a spent end of some sort of larger round," Lt. Col. Anthony Terreri, the radiologist at the Craig Joint Theater Hospital who checked the patient's CAT scan, told the Air Force.

They removed the people they could, the rest donned protective gear and risked themselves to save him.

It reminded me of this story, some of you know it. (Then) Captain John Oh and his surgical team, and an NCO trained in explosive ordnance removal carefully withdrew an RPG from the side of a soldier from the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq. And he survived his wound.

I never really know how to acknowledge this kind of dedication and courage, except to tell people about it. I hope it's something. I know it's not enough.

*not trying to avoid naming the branches of service involved, it's not apparent to me from the stories if they were Army or Air Force. Which doesn't matter in terms of their amazing service, just in terms of me giving appropriate acknowledgement.

posted by Dave In Texas at 09:17 PM

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