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"They knew our treatment, our literature," he said. "They just didn't have our equipment."

In addition to treating Iraqi civilian trauma patients, the U.S. and its allies have also set up local medical clinics where Iraqis can go to get treatment for everyday maladies.

"We've set up literally hundreds of public health clinics over there," Colonel Searle said. "It's a great story."

Not only do our soldiers and Iraqi civilians get cutting-edge trauma treatment when they first come into U.S. medical facilities, they also receive great long-term care.

"Once we developed a fixed facility, we had ICUs, some very high-tech ventilators that saved a lot of lives, and we had intensive care physicians on the ground," Major Maxwell said. "Once we get past the golden hour, we have personnel to make sure they survive the next 24 hours.

"To have an ICU in a Third World country is amazing," she said.

The U.S. also has some of the most advanced equipment and techniques for evacuating soldiers who need treatment at our base hospitals in Germany or the U.S. This is the specialty of the Air Force, which has Critical Care Air Transport Teams (CCT) that transport soldiers on C-17 cargo planes that are converted into flying ICUs. For instance, because of the assets available to U.S. medical teams, when two U.S. helicopters collided over Mosul in November 2003, killing 17 soldiers, one of the critically injured survivors was in the burn unit at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, within 48 hours.

"The CCTs are staffed by intensive care nurses and doctors and have everything you'd expect in an ICU, except they're at 10,000 feet," Major Maxwell said.

WHAT'S MOST AMAZING is that all of this operates relatively smoothly in an intense combat environment with shifting lines of engagement against terrorists who are increasingly innovative at hitting U.S. and Coalition forces. But like much in the military, it succeeds because of teamwork and selfless dedication.

"It's an entire team," said Colonel Place. "It's a seamless chain that starts with a Combat Lifesaver treating a soldier on the Syrian border, to the medic, the doctor, the medevac crew, the CASH and the surgeon and support staff. Because of all them, the soldier lives. Twenty years ago, we would have been writing letters to his parents."

And while all of this is de rigueur for the Army medical staff, they still sometimes stand back and marvel at how well it all works.

"I saw soldiers who were victims of IED explosions that were entirely peppered with shrapnel, including in and around their eyes, face, and chest," Colonel Place said. "I've seen amputations, the whole gamut. Yet it's remarkable to see that kind of carnage and to know that all of them that get to you [at a CASH] are going to survive."

"The most rewarding thing that I experienced over there was the teamwork," Major Maxwell said. "I saw people brought in and the entire CASH was focused on that patient. We had a personnel officer helping to ventilate patients. It was amazing to see how everyone came together."

Captain Charles Blake is an Army physical therapist who was deployed in Iraq with the 86th Combat Support Hospital for most of 2005. In Iraq, physical therapists perform triage and treat non�life threatening injuries.

"I saw neuro musculo skeletal injuries and determined if they could stay in theater and undergo treatment or had to go stateside," Captain Blake said. "If it was a mass casualty, if you were walking wounded and not in immediate need to see a doctor, I was the one seeing you."

He also noted that while much of the military medical community is focused on combat injuries, there are still the everyday injuries associated with just being a soldier.

"Just walking with a rucksack and weapon on patrol is going to result in twisted ankles, wrenched knees, and other injuries," he said. "When you dive to the ground because an IED went off nearby, even if you're not hit by shrapnel you're going to have dislocated shoulders."

And, of course, once a soldier recovers from his wounds he'll often begin a long rehabilitation process. That's where Captain Blake and Colonel Searle return to their more traditional roles of physical therapist and orthopedic surgeon, as do so many of their colleagues in stateside military and Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country.

"Because of advances in combat medicine, people are keeping extremities that they wouldn't have kept 10 or 15 years ago," Colonel Searle said. "They're surviving injuries they didn't used to survive. Injuries that were automatic amputations 10 years ago aren't so anymore."

"What I love about Army rehab is that every soldier who wants to come back is expected to be running through the woods and shooting his weapon like every other soldier," Captain Blake said. "At IBM, it's all about getting back behind a desk and maybe doing some recreational sports. In the Army, there's the full expectation that they'll run two miles on a prosthetic limb for the Army's annual PT test."

"The prosthetics are phenomenal," Captain Blake said. "There's nothing that can compare to it on the civilian side."

Army doctors aren't stopping there. The Army Medical Corps continues to seek out new technologies that will help them save even more lives on the battlefield.

For instance, the U.S. military is working with the Israelis to adopt recombinant activated Factor VII (rFVIIa), used to stem severe surgical bleeding in trauma patients.

"rFVIIa stops bleeding in trauma patients when their own clotting mechanisms are not working properly," according to Army literature. "As a result of this collaboration, rFVIIa is now being used in major trauma centers throughout the world and has been used on over 400 wounded patients in Iraq."

Army medics call rFVIIA "a remarkable, life-saving drug."

FRANKLY, I THINK THAT ALL OF THEM are remarkable, in everything they do. Too bad the war on terror has divided us so that we all can't put our political differences aside and acknowledge what truly remarkable work these doctors, nurses, and physical therapists are doing to treat our soldiers, both in Iraq and here in the U.S. But that's clearly not the case.

An anti-war group called Code Pink has regularly gathered outside the gates at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in suburban Washington. The purpose? To heckle amputees going out for dinner and a movie.

Indeed, on November 11, Veterans Day, they gathered for a candlelight vigil, holding signs that read, "Why isn't war a war crime" and "Support Our Troops: Bring Them Home Now." On other occasions, the group was seen holding signs that read, "Maimed for a lie."

I wonder if any of them know the work that Drs. Maxwell, Place, and Searle and other Army Medical Corps are doing in Iraq and elsewhere. I wonder if they even care.

Mark Yost is associate editorial page editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. His father, Captain George F. Yost, was a thoracic surgeon in a MASH unit in Korea and worked for the Veterans Administration for 20 years. This article first ran in The American Spectator's February 2006 issue. To subscribe, please click here.

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