Photo By Spc. Grant Okubo | Capt. Dale Sharp, a physician assistant with Headquarters and Headquarters Company,...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Spc. Grant T. Okubo
4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq – Starting a job in a new place is not always easy, especially if that job is at an aid station on a forward operating base in Baghdad.
Capt. Dale Sharp, a physician's assistant with 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, seemed right at home Dec. 18 as he conducted his duties seeing and treating 4th BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. Soldiers at the FOB Loyalty aid station. The truth is, he hasn't been with the Patriot Brigade or known its Soldiers very long.
Sharp joined the brigade about two weeks ago in Kuwait. Before becoming a part of the Patriot Brigade, Sharp worked as a PA for 3rd Infantry Division stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga. "We focus on the strains, the sprains and medication refills," said Sharp. The work the PAs do includes assisting doctors so they can deal with more severe cases and can attend to their administrative duties, he said.
Sharp, a Voorhees, N.J. native, has been a PA since 1998. However, Sharp said this is his first deployment with the Army. Previously, Sharp has served and deployed multiple times with the Navy as a hospital corpsmen, and deployed once with the Air Force National Guard. This deployment to Iraq has been quite different from previous deployments for Sharp.
In the Navy, a corpsman is stationed on either a ship or in a hospital, whereas in the Army a PA treats patients on post. Also, Sharp pointed out differences in deployment periods and living conditions. The typical things Sharp has seen Soldiers come in for at the beginning of this deployment are cold and flu-like symptoms.
"That's the majority of what we're seeing, but then, we get...a couple of injuries, a couple of skin rashes and things like that," said Sharp.
The aid station where Sharp works is a level-one care facility, which is responsible for stabilizing incoming trauma patients, explained Sharp. Once stabilized, if necessary, a patient is sent to a level-three care facility, which is equipped with surgical facilities, he said.
Just as Sharp did, other Patriot Brigade Soldiers - PAs, medics and doctors - have taken control of duties at the aid station on FOB Loyalty. Sharp is confident about the performance of this incoming group.
"We've all been trained to the 10th degree (at home station)," related Sharp. "We feel confident we can handle trauma, but anytime all hell breaks loose, it's always confusing. So it will take a few times for us to get everyone up to speed."
Sharp is very happy with the Patriot Brigade personnel he is working with. "I'm very impressed with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Brigade Special Troops Battalion medics," said Sharp. "They're an outstanding group of young medics. They're really on top of their game. So are the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division medics."
| Date Taken: | 12.28.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2007 12:01 |
| Story ID: | 15051 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 252 |
| Downloads: | 201 |
This work, Patriot Brigade PA settles in, by SPC Grant Okubo, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
