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Soldiers helping restore health care in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service, April 15, 2003) - As combat wound down and U.S. soldiers began making the streets of Baghdad safe for business again, civil affairs teams went to work assessing the extent of the war's damage and trying to restore health services.

A rapid assessment team from the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion, an Army Reserve unit from Little Rock, Ark., surveyed health-care facilities to find out what was needed to restore adequate medical care to local citizenry.

"Now that we're moving into reconstruction, the biggest things will be to assess the condition of the local infrastructure," said Master Sgt. William McGuckin, a platoon sergeant with the 431st. "We are such a small element that we can't fix the problems, but we can make recommendations."

His team, composed of a handful of civil affairs soldiers, a Baghdad veterinarian hired to translate and a security detachment from the 101st Airborne Division, visited four clinics in the neighborhoods around the city. The clinics were either discovered earlier by elements of the 431st CA Bn. or revealed by the 431st's interpreter, McGuckin said.

The facilities were structurally sound and undamaged by weeks of bombing, but all had been looted. Desks, chairs, cabinets, and most disposable medical items had been carted off. Common materials such as gauze, sponges and bandages were nowhere to be found.

Due to lack of security, looting and loss of power, some clinics were forced to close their doors. McGuckin said his team tried to find out what they needed to re-open.

"The primary concerns of the physicians and the nurses we talked to were getting immunizations and medications for children," McGuckin said. Other main concerns were getting the electricity back on, making the neighborhoods secure enough to operate again and finding some way to pay the clinics' employees so they could return to work.

"Prior to healthcare facilities re-opening, we want some form of security established. They prefer to operate with electricity and we will forward our reports for whatever medical equipment they may need," McGuckin said.

Wherever the team made its visits, curious citizens gathered outside, wondering why soldiers were there and asking whether the electricity would be turned on or the clinic would re-open.

"The looters came in here yesterday and took everything," said Baghdad citizen Samir Sadill. "We need this place for the people, but some people are ignorant."

Although the fall of Baghdad knocked out many basic facilities and several sectors of the city still suffer from looting, Sadill said the citizens were very happy they had been liberated.

"The people are starting to get used to the military being here," Sadill said. "It's a new chapter for Iraq. We got rid of Saddam Hussein and things will get better."

Sadill was an English professor at Baghdad University before the war. He's temporarily out of work now, but he asked if the military needed anyone who could translate Arabic to English.

"We have a lot of people coming up to offer assistance," McGuckin said. "In fact, if we go back to that area, we're most certainly going to use that guy."

McGuckin said the team's recommendations would be passed onto the 101st Division's assistant chief of staff, G5, who will arrange for distribution of available aid or pass the assessment further up.

At some point, non-governmental agencies such as the Red Crescent Society will be able to pick up on the preliminary work done by the civil affairs teams and commit their resources to establish a long-term solution, McGuckin said.

(Editor's note: Pfc. James Matise is a journalist assigned to the 101st Abn. Div.)