Carson unit will tend Iraqis, each other

Fort Carson soldiers will head to Iraq later this month to take over what has been called the world's busiest trauma hospital.

More than 500 soldiers assigned to the 10th Combat Support Hospital will spend a year in Baghdad's Green Zone, a government hub that also houses an Army hospital where soldiers wounded anywhere in the city are flown for treatment. The unit will mark its departure with a Friday ceremony at the post, and troops will start boarding planes for the Middle East next week, said the unit's commander, Col. Rafael E. De Jesus.

The deployment follows 18 months of intense training for the hospital unit with its soldiers learning how to deal with the complex injuries they'll face in Iraq.

De Jesus said that his soldiers aren't happy about leaving family during the holidays, but that they are excited about the task ahead.

"We'll be a critical link," the colonel said.

The way soldiers are treated for combat wounds now is unlike anything in military history. Soldiers from the 10th will form one stop in a chain of care that gets even seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield to hospitals in the United States within days.

De Jesus' soldiers will be responsible for caring for wounded troops in the first phase of that care, performing emergency surgeries and stabilizing patients for a helicopter ride to the massive American hospital at Balad, north of Baghdad.

On its last deployment to Iraq in 2006, soldiers from the unit saw as many as 20 trauma patients every day.

To get ready, doctors and nurses from the unit went to Army hospitals in Texas and Alabama to learn the skills they'll need.

The hospital also held a series of field exercises, that included performing surgery in a high-tech tent to simulate the challenges they may face.

In Iraq, the soldiers will have better facilities than tents. Since Baghdad fell to American troops in 2003, the Green Zone hospital near the Tigris River that bisects the city has gone through steady improvements.

Soldiers working at the hospital now live in barracks, and the medical buildings have the same amenities of any top-flight hospital in the United States.

U.S. casualties in Baghdad have been at record lows for months, but the hospital's patients won't just be Americans. Military hospitals in Iraq have traditionally cared for Iraqis injured in violence and have also stepped up to back civilian authorities in all kinds of emergency care.

In 2006, soldiers from the 10th delivered eight babies.

To help his soldiers better care for Iraqis, De Jesus has sent his troops to a series of language and culture courses.

Another key skill the troops have practiced, he said, is how to care for each other in the stressful environment ahead.

"We have already come up with a plan for what we're going to do when we hit the ground ­- not only in the mission, but taking care of each other," De Jesus said.

The hospital unit will have plenty of Fort Carson company in Iraq. The post will have about 10,000 soldiers in Iraq at year's end, including members of two combat brigades from the 4th Infantry Division.