Helping to Heal the Invisible Wounds

[unhappycamper]

Helping to Heal the Invisible Wounds
December 12, 2008
Air Force Print News|by TSgt. Craig Lifton

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - The Air Force Theater Hospital here looks and sounds like any other hospital in a major U.S. city. Doctors, nurses and other medics move along and treat various patients while an overhead announcement calls for a doctor.

Wounds start to mend here. Some are easy to see, while others hide below the surface. A unique team at Joint Base Balad specializes in healing wounds so deep they can damage the very spirit.

Chaplain (Maj.) Wendell Rome and Staff Sgt. Terry Mueth, a chaplain assistant, are both assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing and stop and talk to patients and medics alike offering prayer, comfort or even just a shoulder to cry on. They walk the floors of the hospital unafraid and determined to help anyone that needs it.

The hospital here is the equivalent of a level-one trauma center stateside. With a daily average of more than 100 patients treated for various medical problems, the hospital boasts a 98 percent survival rate for U.S. servicemembers injured in combat.

To support these patients, two religious support teams work at the hospital 24 hours a day. In addition to Chaplain Rome and Sergeant Mueth covering the day shift, Chaplain (Capt.) James Patterson from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and Senior Airman Thomas Myers Jr., a chaplain assistant from Malmstrom AFB, Mont., fill the night shift. Together, they make their presence known through the hospital and associated operations.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/air-force-news/helping-to-heal-the-invisible-wounds.html?col=1186032369229