Just a quickie tonight, kids, as I have not had much time to write today, and it is already after 10 PM. Sundays tend to be pretty mellow for me, as I usually take my day off, and church is not very time-intensive (as I have mentioned previously); however a couple of other events kept me occupied.

One of our medics was admitted to the CSH (the hospital), presumably with a pyelonephritis (a kidney infection), but her symptoms and the lab results are not really adding up. More to follow, but on my insistence she is getting a CT scan tonight. I still think that the most likely diagnosis will indeed be pyelonephritis, but there are a couple of boogeymen out there which need to be ruled out before I can sleep comfortably.

In addition to that unwelcome excitement, we had a visit today from our Brigade Commander. I have to be reminded of constantly by my medics how the hierarchy of Army divisions goes: I am part of a “company” (581st Area Support Medical Company), which is part of a “battalion” (261st Task Force), which in turn is part of a “brigade” (62nd Medical Brigade). The 62nd is an organization with an impressive history, including four tours during WWII (Normandy among them), as well as tours in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Somalia, and now Iraq. A visit from the Commanding Officer is a big deal, and we got the clinic very clean and I was instructed to be there from 1400 to 1600. I was a bit late due to church, and was happy to see that COL had already arrived by the time I got there, because this meant that perhaps I would get a nap today, after all. (Ultimately, ’twas not to be due to the aforementioned issue.)

The Commanding Officer is named COL Sargent, another in a long line of Great Army Names. I have noted that only baseball player names surpass Army names in pure entertainment value. COL Sargent is a huge, impressive man, who spoke softly (at least on this occasion), and he was uniformly positive about our clinic, the medics, and our reputation on Al Asad. He did not stay long, and spent much more time with the medics than with the doctor, which is how it should be.

Finally, tonight I was called, sustained, and set apart as the First Assistant in the Al Asad Serviceman’s Group, Arabian Peninsula Stake. Our group leader is Manny Diaz, a Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sergeant (E-9), who is the rock for our little congregation. We also have an LDS Chaplain assigned to us, LCDR Robert Vance. Our presidency meeting is this Thursday; I look forward to being part of the leadership team here.

That’s it for the night, folks. More to follow this weekend, and I still owe you some pictures of my co-workers.