My Journey as a Combat Medic: From Desert Storm to Operation Enduring Freedom is the celebration of the modern combat medic.
The author felt compelled to write this memoir after returning from Afghanistanin 2005. He felt that his experiences as a combat medic during Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and fifteen years later during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan made me the best qualified person to tell about the combat medic. He was a medic with experience and had some perspective.
The story of the modern day combat medic is something that is not being told. There have been television shows on such about infantry forces in Vietnam, movies about Special Forces soldiers, even movies about the 160th and the Army Rangers. No stories about the modern medic specifically.
The author has talked with other combat medics who wish that they could write about their experiences. Originally, the author thought about getting several medics together and all write about about the different experiences from different wars. None of the other medics were interested in doing this. Patrick soon realized that not only is it a story about combat, but a story about life.
Patrick writes about growing up as an Army brat and moving every couple of years, about dealing with post traumatic stress disorder. I write about the training of a medic and how I used that training in combat. I write about being a seasoned older medic giving some dear advice to a new medic. The book itself is not just combat. The book is about the Journey that he took. He has entitled the book, “My Journey as a Combat Medic : From Operation Desert Storm to Operation Enduring Freedom” for this.
Patrick was a naive new medic at first and as the years had gone by, he was the seasoned old medic. Looking back, he remembers those old seasoned medics he would look to for advice and inspiration. Patrick wrote this book because he wants the public to know about the people that are the first ones to take care of the injured in combat. Enough stories and documentaries have been written about the surgeons in combat hospitals. A true story needs to be told about the medics who took care of the wounded first. That is this story.
