The war wounded in Iraq

Keep them alive

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Imagine some of the worst headlines you've seen from Iraq. Car bombings in Fallujah. Shootings in the Sunni Triangle. Six wounded. Four dead.

Since February of last year, Mickenzie (Gibson) Pearson was behind those headlines, treating the wounded Marines. The wounded Iraqi civilians. And yes, even the wounded insurgents. She saw them first. She loaded them onto litters. She carried them across canals. She was shot at on almost every mission and she felt hate she could taste and sadness like you can't imagine, and sometimes even joy.

Pearson is a 1998 graduate of Columbia Falls High School. If you've lived here you probably remember her picture in the paper back then. She was a basketball player. Volleyball player. Homecoming Queen.

Her round face and soft features and striking eyes are unforgettable. Her fellow soldiers called her Baywatch.

Her parents, Carolyn and Mike wrote in her yearbook, "Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."

Words to live by.

She joined the Navy to gain training in the medical field. Someday Hospitalwoman 2nd Class Pearson wants to be a doctor.

She was transferred to Iraq as part of Marine Wing Support Squadron 374 stationed in al Taqaddum air base, in the middle of the Sunni triangle, in the middle of the war.

Her mission was simple-fly rescue flights to wounded soldiers in the field with the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 161.

Simple if you can handle the motion sickness. Simple if you don't mind doing it while the enemy shoots at you. Simple if you can deal with the two .50 caliber machine guns shooting back. Simple if you can handle treating a young Marine, a guy your age who has had his face blown off by an improvised explosive device -military talk for a homemade bomb-while you have to treat the Iraqi insurgent who set it as well. See, the insurgent didn't get away in time. His own bomb got him, too.

"It was a compromise of emotions," Pearson said. "It's hard to take care of that guy."

The Navy had trained her in the field of medicine all right. But not so much in the field of battle. She had never sat in a helicopter before. Never mind treated a wounded soldier on one.

"I had never been in a helicopter," she said. "The first time I was shaking. Freaking out. But your mind knows what to do, and you just do it."

The bottom line was just keep the patient alive on the way to the hospital in Baghdad.

Many times, the wounds were horrible. An improvised explosive device usually blows up under the floorboards of a Humvee. The blast goes through the soldier's legs and into their face and chest.

"It was pretty messy," Pearson said. "There were some pretty serious injuries. A lot (of injuries) were to the face. It was really hard to deal with."

Some wounded were "unrecognizable," she said.

Home was a 10-by-10-foot shack she shared with fellow crew members. Shifts were 24 hours on, 24 hours off. The shack had a Porta-Potty that baked in the 137-degree heat and smelled like it. There were scorpions and huge camel spiders.

A bad day would have four calls in one day. A cow bell rings and you're in the air in eight minutes. On one flight they had a helicopter full of wounded-six soldiers to two medics.

Coping was an art form.

There was no booze. No pot. This is not Vietnam.

Pearson coped with her smile.

"You just keep your sense of humor," she said.

And your faith. She did a lot of praying.

Pearson's tour of duty ended recently and, no, she doesn't want to ever go back. She has nightmares, and she's still adjusting to life stateside. A door slams and she jumps. She missed Montana terribly.

"I missed it so much. I missed the way it smelled," she said.

She still has two years left with the Navy, and there still is the possibility she will have to go back to Iraq, though not likely on the same mission.

Even so, she wouldn't take the experience back. Not at all.

"All in all it was a great experience. I learned a lot," she said.

When she gets out she wants to go to medical school and become a doctor, a family practitioner.

A quiet life would be good.

Very good.

Especially after this.