There are many interesting things about this photo. Most of Josh's trip to Iraq was documented on a digital camera, but before that he had a quite a few disposable cameras...unfortunately the undeveloped film has been sitting around since he got home...in the Spring of 2004. Sad huh? Just a couple of days ago I actually took them and had them processed! Miracle!!! Some of the pictures were messed up due to heat or moisture-or being too old, I don't know how much damage was from when they were actually overseas or whatever, but luckily we were able to get a few cool pics of Josh over there. This particular photo of SSG Barton also has his good friend Dan in the backseat of the HummVee. Not having your typical 'great day' but enjoying themselves as much as is possible.
I don't know if you can see just how filthy he is...ugh. This is 'camping out' on the road to wherever they were going. Josh is smiling, incredible considering how covered in sand and dust he is! They put three of those cots he is sitting on across this space between two of thier huge convoy trucks, with the camo-tarp up to protect from the wind, and slept five people across in that space. As we know the desert gets cold, windy and obviously DIRTY at night! During the day it was only nasty hot, windy and dirty.
Josh helped run the Bloodbank in theatre over there. He is unloading a shipment of Human Blood here-pretty amazing that work this important was done working out of an old airplane hanger, with ice machines, huge freezers, and generators...and they were able to send blood all over to the hospitals and medical units on a regular basis, and send emergency shipments as well.
All of their unit slept in tents, without benefit of actual bathroom facilities- just the ones they were able to rig themselves. The girls in the unit would wash their hair in basins, Josh and his friends would leave a huge bag of water out in the sun during the day, then climb up onto the top of the hanger at dark and strip down and wash up as best they could! They also used baby wipes- to this day he hates the smell of baby wipes. tee hee. Oh, and I sent Josh a couple of those old-fashioned washboards for washing his clothes! Eventually they started to get some modern conveniences...right before Josh came home.
One cool thing Josh was able to do was get to know some of the Iraqi people that worked & lived nearby. This photo is of them sharing a meal together, on a cardboard box right in front of a large pile of Human Blood boxes...weird huh?
Lastly these are two of the few pics that Josh actually emailed me from Iraq. I was so excited to finally get a photo of my hubby so far away, to see that he was actually safe...and I got two photos...one of the dirty huge camel spider so common in that area, and another of the nasty little scorpion that stung him after it snuck into his folded shirt while he was showering. *sigh* & ewwwww!
1 comment:
Megan, Where did your husband go to medical school? Is he in the middle of his payback time? What kind of doctor is he? My husband Trevor is in his first year of residency in MI doing radiology. We have 4 most likely 5 years left. Medical school has been a fun journey =). Is your husband still out of the country? How much longer do you guys have for your payback? We have friends that did the military for medical school and are in the middle of their payback period.
Post a Comment