By
Graham Davis
Two
highly skilled intensive care RAN nursing officers and two equally
skilled Navy medics are heading for Baghdad as part of a 20-person
tri-service medical unit.
They are likely to be very busy, embedded in a US military hospital
just outside the capital.
The senior officer leading the team, Australian neuro-surgeon
Reserve Colonel Jeffrey Rosenfeld, said the team was likely to
encounter major trauma injuries ranging from the effects of bomb
blasts to penetration wounds stemming from bullets or shrapnel.
It’s the first Australian medical team to go to Iraq. The team
is made up of nine members of the RAAF, seven from the Army and
four from the Navy.
Many are Reservists. They include a surgeon, an emergency physician,
intensive care specialists, nurses and medics. On September 9,
11 of the 20 were formally farewelled at the Randwick Barracks
in Sydney.
The other nine, including the RAN members, were already on their
way to Iraq. One person to step from “civvie” world to the military
was Army Lieutenant Gary Steer.
He is an intensive care nurse and works at Queensland’s Gympie
Hospital.
Senior medic RAAF warrant officer Ian Swney stepped away from
the Air Force hospital at RAAF Richmond to head to Iraq.
He has seen service in East Timor.
Also going is Army Captain Marc Reissenweber.
He is a registered nurse and intensive care specialist and is
attached to the 2nd Health Support Battalion.
AVM Shepherd addressed the team commending them for their service
and the flexibility of the ADF.
Representing the Government was the Defence Minister, Senator
Robert Hill, representing the Opposition was western Sydney MP,
Roger Price.
From the RAAF was the Air Commander AVM Geoffrey Shepherd and
from the Army, the Land Command Chief of Staff, BRIG Brian Dawson.
Senator Hill in his address to the team said the task in Iraq
continued to be a complicated one.
“Violence continues. But there are many positives in Iraq,” he
said.
He said the RAAF had been able to hand over air traffic control
at the Baghdad International Airport to Iraqis whom they had trained.
“Iraqi National Airline is now flying. It has one 737 and four
767s are coming,” he said.
Baghdad International Airport is “now a civilian airport”.
He said an independent electoral commission had been trained and
that national elections will be held in January.
“Ministries we helped build are functioning well.
Much of the country is reasonably calm and reasonably secure,”
he said. “Health services are substantially improved from what
they were before the war.
“There are some who want to defeat the process.
There are still insurgents who came from the secret police.
And there are some Jihardists who want to fight everyone.”
