On the seventh anniversary of the Iraq invasion, a New Mexico nurse discusses her service

Whitny Doyle, RN, poses for a photo illustration by Eric Williams (ericwphoto.com). Digital post-production by Jack Atlantis.

When people hear about nurses serving in war, they probably picture a woman in white tending to wounded soldiers on the battlefield. Modern American military nursing, however, goes beyond providing comfort to our uniformed service people. Nurses may dress the wounds of the enemy. They may deploy to New Orleans to salvage lives in a temporary hospital. Some military nurses may get the chance to share their skills and knowledge with Iraqi women in makeshift classrooms. Others may find themselves witnessing history firsthand as Saddam Hussein’s guilty verdict is being read.

Amy (a pseudonym) was 25 during that first helicopter ride to the now infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. As a newly deployed Army nurse, her mission during her yearlong service was to care for wounded Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib hospital. -->-->-->

By the way, what with little to none construction going on and a long layoff from work, I've started up another Blog as to the VA. There's been a slew of actions taken since Gen. Shinseki took over only months ago and those he brought into that agencies administration. Not to mention, Finally, Congress doing what it should have during the past decade but didn't as they helped wage two more Wars, investigations and hearings as well as passing much needed legislation etc. trying to play catchup once again. The Blog is called Veterans Administration into the 21st Century. The above piece is the type of article I post there, along with press releases from the VA and more. Not being a writer most are copy and paste with backlinks to original, sometimes I'll add in some comments. Feel free to visit, I try and post at least one a day and sometimes more as well as bundling a few reports together. Also adding to the sidebar some important links as I see them or already know about them.