I think I may have met you before, a number of years ago. My mom and I came down with Nancy for a summer vacation on the 4th of July and you guys put us up in one of the best suites in town right on the beach! We didn't get to see you for very long (only in a quick passing) but it was very much appreciated! I also really appreciate the interest in our mission here.

A little bit of a back story about my own military experience... I enlisted into full time active duty army right out of high school. I spent all of my 4 years working at an army hospital as a mental health specialist at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, TX. Then I got out of the army and went back home and continued going to school for dental hygiene. Well, when you join the military, what a lot of people don't realize, is that you have to serve a minimum of 8 years. For myself, that meant 4 years of active duty, and 4 years of this little tricky thing called IRR (Individual Ready Reserve) For some people the ratio may mean 2 years active / 6 IRR, or whatever. IRR is a time that you technically are still on the military roll call, but you do not serve in the reserves or National Guard. It just means that if needed, the army can call you back to active duty any time they need you. Well, back in 2000 when I joined, I never dreamed I'd get called back. That's because at the time, no one WAS being called back. All was quiet on the western front, I guess. But, then once 2003 rolled around and this Iraq thing blew up, not as many soldiers were re-enlisting and recruitment went down. For this reason, the "internal draft" was started. We IRR soldiers were being asked to return more frequently. So, here I am! I had been out for over 2 years. The army put me on a plane, gave me some uniforms, attached me to a reserve unit and the rest is history. (Oh, and once this unit returns to the states, I will be released from my orders, for the 2nd time.)

As far as the unit I am now attached to: We are the 785th medical company out of Minneapolis Minnesota. This entire unit is a Combat Stress Team. There are about 80 of us total. The whole unit is made up of Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social workers, Psych nurses, Occupational Therapists, and Mental Health specialists, like myself. The unit is broken up into 14 different sites, and we cover all of central Iraq. I myself am stationed in Balad, which is just north of Baghdad. We have soldiers there, as well as Fallujah, Ramadi, Tikrit, Sadar City, among others. We all have one main focus, which is to take care of soldiers suffering from the mental strain of combat. This is better known as 'battle fatigue'. When thinking of war, many associate the physical stressors a soldier endures, but often the mental and emotional tolls are forgotten. It is easy for us to see here, because it is actually quite common. What most people don't know, is that 61% of all medical evacuations out of the battle zone during the Vietnam war were mental health related. Many of these veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This disorder is actually one of our main focuses, along with TBI's, or Traumatic Brain Injuries. TBI's are actually being called "the signature injury of this war." These brain injuries occur during IED blasts, or Improvised Explosive Device blasts. These are better known in the media as road side bombs. Our mission actually has us broken down into 2 different groups; we have our prevention team and our fitness team. The prevention team, which is what I am a part of, is made up of 2 or 3 people. We spend our time traveling to see the soldiers in their own environment, whether it be at their offices, in their guard towers or on their convoys. We talk to the soldiers about what kind of stress they are going through, what feelings and symptoms are normal for them to feel in this kind of environment, and what they can do if they need help getting through it. This involves seeing soldiers on a one to one basis, or sometimes in large groups. We also do classes on stress and anger management, coping skills, home front issues, etc. The biggest part of our mission is grief counseling. We are there to talk to the soldiers when life is lost. We are available at all the memorials on post. It's important for us to get out there where the troops are and show them that we are available for their needs. Our other group, the Fitness team, is made up of about 12 soldiers that stay in our clinic. They are there 24 hours a day for soldiers to walk in for individual or group counseling. Some of the soldiers who have been in a lot of combat will stay with us in the clinic for 2 - 3 days, just to get a break. We have 2 fitness sites; 1 in Baghdad and 1 here in Balad. The soldiers appreciate what we do, and it makes us feel good to be here.

Some of the things that we do need in our clinic would be flip flops to use in the showers and t-shirts. So many of our soldiers come straight from the hospital and often because of wounds, their uniforms had to be cut off, so they have no clothing. Another item that is nice is stationary. Cereal is another one. We are fed well, but the variety isn't always the greatest. Special K is all we have, so anything besides that is a plus! And of course, chocolate! We love healthy snacks, but now that the weather is cooling down, chocolate can be sent in the mail without melting.

I hope that answered your questions! I tried to include as much as possible. Thank you again, and we really do appreciate it! I have attached a picture of the team here in Balad at camp Anaconda. I am at the bottom left hand corner.

Holli