SOLDIERS OF V CORPS' 30TH MEDICAL BRIGADE COME HOME FROM YEAR IN SOUTHWEST ASIA
V Corps Release
Release Date: 2/19/2004
By Spc. Kristopher Joseph V Corps Public Affairs Office
HEIDELBERG, Germany -- Soldiers of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of V Corps' 30th Medical Brigade were given a celebrity's welcome by families and friends when they arrived at the Wilson Theater on Nachrichten Kaserne here Feb. 18 for a homecoming ceremony marking the end of a year-long deployment in Southwest Asia.
Except for a few remaining in Kuwait to see off 30th Med's equipment, this was the final group of 75 Soldiers from the company to return, along with the brigade commander, Col. Donald A. Gagliano, who also served as the Combined Joint Task Force-7 surgeon for the first iteration of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"We're back!" exclaimed Gagliano to the excited audience.
Gagliano addressed the crowd briefly, calling the 30th's Soldiers true heroes who made a difference for the citizens of Iraq. After his remarks, the stage emptied as the "Victory Medics" rushed to reunite with their loved ones.
Capt. Brian Spangler, the headquarters' battle captain, was greeted by his kids, Mary, 3, and Connor, 6, and his wife Kathy, who is also an Army captain and a nurse at the medical kaserne.
"As a soldier myself I understood the reality of what my husband was going through," Kathy said. Still, she said, it was the non-military spouses of the unit's Soldiers who kept her sane during the separation by planning constant get-togethers, dinners and other functions that allowed them to bond and understand what each was going through.
Gagliano certainly seemed to believe there was a "star quality" to the brigade's accomplishments during its deployment. At one point, he said, the 30th was in charge of two other medical brigades and more than 5,300 Soldiers, who saw some 10,000 patients and peformed more surgeries in nine months than one of the major trauma centers in Miami. He also said one of the brigade's medical evacuation companies flew more hours and more patients than any company in the Vietnam War.
In addition to providing medical care for V Corps and CJTF-7 Soldiers, the brigade also was responsible for resupplying and refurbishing the medical infrastructure of Iraq left in shambles after the exit of Saddam's regime. Gagliano said 40 to 50 percent of the brigade's effort was aimed at rapidly bringing Iraq to a level of hospital care that would equal any found in the United States.
Brigade Chief of Staff Col. Barry Moore gave the 30th's deployment the highest praise, calling it "the most successful medical effort in modern warfare."
"Any challenge we faced, we made it happen," said Moore. "In my entire military service I have never been assigned to work with a finer group of soldiers."
Moore said some of the challenges the brigade faced in the early stages of deployment were getting up-to-date inoculations for corps Soldiers spread out across widespread and often remote locations in the Iraqi Freedom theater of operations, and moving or "jumping" to different locations as operations shifted gears.
Sandstorms made moving particularly difficult. By Army standards a field medical hospital should move in a matter of hours, Moore explained, but he said blowing sand often prevented helicopter evacuations.
"Sure, we can get rid of the hospital in three hours," Moore said. "But you can't get rid of the patients, too."
Another accomplishment of the brigade's "landmark year" was organizing an international medical symposium that Gagliano said was the first of its kind, with a primary goal of building a non-governmental medical organization in Iraq similar to the American Medical Association. While tension between sects is one of Iraq's major issues in forming a new government, Gagliano said he feels Iraq's new Ministy of Health will pave the way for unifying groups such as the Kurds back into the Iraqi community.
"This is unprecedented for Iraq," said Gagliano. "This effort is fostering non-discriminitory medical practice in Iraq."
While the "Victory Medics" are handing off their command and control mission in Southwest Asia to the 2nd Medical Brigade, an Army Reserve unit from California, the 30th will continue to play a part in Iraqi Freedom. Six of its units totalling over 800 soldiers deployed recently in support of the operation's second iteration.
Concluding his short speech at the 30th's homecoming, Gagliano showed his pride in the part his Soldiers' efforts are playing in improving Iraq's quality of life.
"Iraq today has people with a hope for the future, and that is really what this is all about," he said.
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