troop letter: Rudy

May 22, 2009

Mr Williams,

Thank you for the box of snacks, movies and supplies. They went pretty
fast.

We here at Bagram, Craig Joint Theater Hospital, are always
grateful when we receive box of goodies from the wonderful people like
you back home. Every bit helps. The cigars were awesome. I think we have
some new cigar smokers here. They came just at the right time. Our
hospital commander will be leaving us soon and we are having a little
bar-b-q for him before he leaves. He is an avid cigar smoker and we plan
on using the cases you sent the day of the party. With what you sent, we
will have enough for everybody.
Let me tell you a little about our unit. We are TF MED, attached to
the 455 AEW. We are a joint force. We have Air Force, Army and Navy
medical personnel working side by side in the main hospital (Craig Joint
Theater Hospital CJTH) located on Bagram AF, Afghanistan. We also have
FOB’s (Forward Operating Bases) throughout the country. We are pretty
big. Not sure how many personnel CJTH has but somewhere close to 300. We
are the main hospital in the country. If you are badly injured in the
field and need definitive care, most likely you will be sent to CJTH. We
are like a Level I hospital back in the states. We have it all, ER
(busy), OR, ICU and a ward. We have pretty good Air Evac team that
takes patients to Germany. I the NCOIC of the ER department. The busiest
ER in Afghanistan. We have great medics here giving it their best every
day. You have to be, sometimes we have to give that extra effort to get
some of these wounded through. I am very proud of all the work we do
here. Everyone does their job no matter how minute it is. It gets done.
As far as a wish list, our team is getting ready to leave early July,
we are counting the days down already, so I will let the new group send
you a list of what they need or want. As far as right now, people are
asking for Wii games. We have 2 games here and they are all played out.
Chocolate bars make a lot of people happy here. It is hard to get some
good bars, i.e.. Snickers, Baby Ruth’s, Payday or Butterfingers here. In
all sir, whatever you send will be fine. We are not picky but we are
very grateful for sending us packages and for having us in your thoughts
and prayers. Once my replacement get’s here, I will forward you the name
of the new morale POC. Thank You and your community for the package.

RUDY!