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Fifth Job of Bob - Army - Part XIV - Mash Unit; first major blood episode
This entry was posted on 11/30/2010 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
I wrote about this experience before when reflecting on close calls in my life. It is also posted in my "Date with Fate" Category. It was posted a while ago before I started to really organize my foray into writing about my various jobs in life. This experience with blood poisoning would seem to need to be also planted firmly in my Army experiences.
When I think of what one soldier probably faces in on afternoon in Iraq or Afghanistan, my life's quirky twists of fate are probably rather lame-and-tame. None-the-less, my stories are all I have. We are not all in combat all the time. Hell, on second thought, some of the crap I have lived through in America, makes a couple of cities I visited in Iraq look rather normal. That all being as it may, when I was in the Army back in 1975, I managed to step on a sharp object on the artillery range in Grafenwoehr, Germany and got a good case of Septicemia. At least that is the conventional wisdon. Back home we used to call it blood poisoning. Being 19 years old, I had know idea how sick I was becoming. I just thought I had a good case of the flu. My leg hurt a bit, but I did not make the connection.
On reflection, perhaps it was something else that ailed me. The doctor never showed me any object removed from my foot. Nor, I don't remember any specific moment of impact. Only, that after wandering around on the artillery range recovering massive piles of brass, I began to have trouble with my right foot. Then I got flu symptoms.
For clarification, Cobra helicopters firing their rapid-fire weapons at targets released streams of brass from the bullets. That brass was recycled. Us Engineers often got the nod to round it up. Just a caveat: You don't want to be underneath them when they fire; the brass is red hot.
As my Combat Engineer unit plodded through the drudgery of an assignment up by the Czechoslovakian border, I got sicker and sicker. Eventually, unable to even hold my head up, my Lieutenant said, "Keith you fool, take your sick ass to the Medics." My friend Crazy Jimmy from my squad drove the bumpy route to the MASH unit. Yes, up by the border they had a mobile clinic set up. It was surprisingly just like the TV show - minus the combat wounded soldiers. Most of the patients had suffered injuries and pneumonia et cetera.
"You ain't got the flu son," the Doc said. "Drop you pants, something else is wrong."
When I revealed my right leg, the Doc said, "Damn, boy. Do you realize how close to dying you are. The infection is clear up to your groin."
He found the epicenter of where he thought some tiny shreds of the artillery shrapnel still were lodged in my foot. But he never seemed to take anything out. Perhaps it was something else, perhaps nothing at all - just a puncture or cut. I was so sick, the conversation is lost. Being from the farm, I guess I certainly did not have very good self diagnosis ability. And in those days I had little medical training. If you had a pain on the farm, you just toughed it out.
The back story was that while I spent two weeks in the field hospital, Crazzy Jimmy never relayed my situation to my unit. And in the mean time, my Lieutenant had been called back to head quarters in Nuremberg. Subsequently, I was listed as AWOL for two weeks. My friend thought that was the biggest funny deal.
On release from the field hospital, the Doc said, "No walking for a couple days." But, when I called my unit to come pick me up, the duty sergeant called me a "pussy" and said no Jeep was available. Besides, he claimed I was, "A malingering sissy," and, "Malingering sissies don't deserve a ride." I walked the three miles back to camp on my bad leg.
Three days later I was back in the field hospital, this time for three weeks. The Doc was not happy and apparently some shit hit somebody's fan back in my unit - a certain duty sergeant I heard. At any rate, Ol' Sarge never spoke to me again.
Now after 35 years of reflection on the subject it all melts together as I have a terrible blood clotting disorder that has haunted me most of my adult life. It either clots to much, or not enough. You can imagine the catastrophes that may have triggered over the years. I now ponder if that incident in the Army may have been connected in some manner - not the cause, but a related, early episode. Back in my early struggle with "the condition," the medical profession had different takes on the condition. They often accused me of causing it.
Thank God - any god you may bring with you, a few years ago, the Docs at the University of Wisconsin Hospital decided it was genetic and I was born with it. That would explain a lot of problems I had in my youth. Go figure. I played four years of high school football, and of course, Uncle Sam let me in the Army. Not necessarily two places you need to be if you have a propensity to bleed to death off and on.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Sergeant First Class Jesse Bryon Albrecht, 31, Hager City, Wisconsin, died in Iskandariya, Iraq, on Thursday, May 17, 2007. He was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to Company E, 725th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, out of Fort Richardson, Alaska. He was one of three soldiers killed in the incident. Hager City is a town in western Wisconsin off the Mississippi River south of St. Paul, Minnesota. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Albrecht collected pictures and statues of eagles. Jesse was born on Sept. 11, 1975, in River Falls, Wisconsin. He spent his early life in Glenwood City and Emerald, Wisconsin. He was a graduate of Prescott High School, in Prescott, Wisconsin in 1994. He was on the wrestling team in high school. The Journal Sentinel went on to note Albrecht was fond of camping, four-wheeling, salmon fishing (which he gave away the fish), and snow-boarding. He enlisted in the Army in June 1993 before graduating from high school. He took his basic training between his junior and senior years. Albrecht was deployed to Iraq in September of 2006. Wisconsin 2007 Assembly Joint Resolution 58 noted that Jesse Albrecht was a paratrooper in his unit. At the time of his death Jesse Albrecht was survived by his wife Crystal Albrecht; his daughter Salena Albrecht; mother Denise Albrecht; and, father William Pollei. Sergeant First Class Jesse Albrecht was the 74th Wisconsin military service person killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
98,876 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,784 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,432 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1405 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
827 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,992 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,469 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
26 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
144 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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