For Marines in desert, a sobering lesson of war

The bodies of two American servicemen were flown to this desolate desert air base last night, hours after an Air Force B-52 bombed friendly forces north of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

Three U.S. servicemen were killed and 19 wounded in the incident. Five Afghans died, the Pentagon later reported.

The bodies of the two servicemen were taken to a base morgue, a Marine spokesman said, adding that he believed they were victims of the B-52. Some of the wounded Americans were brought here by two Ch-53 Super Stallion helicopters escorted by two Cobra helicopter gunships, military spokesmen said. The wounded received treatment aboard the helicopters, then were placed on a C-130 cargo plane and transferred to medical facilities outside Afghanistan.

For the Marines based here, it was a sobering lesson of war.

“This is real,” said Maj. James R. Parrington, executive officer of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s battalion landing team. “We’re not playing around, and there are people out here that want to do us serious ill will. ... An event like this drives it home.”

This air base was a pivotal transit and medical facility for men wounded in the “friendly fire” incident. About 20 Afghans were ferried to the base, where they were treated by medical personnel. Most were then taken to other facilities by vehicle, a spokesman said. Two were seen walking across the dusty compound.

One, a bearded fighter dressed in flowing black robe and black turban, limped across the base. A uniformed American bearing an M-16 walked with the Afghan, who made his way to toilets set in the desert. As he walked back across the compound, the Afghan looked past Marines who were hauling goods and returned a salute from a newspaper reporter.

This is how many here saw their first Afghan fighter, an ally in the war against the Taliban. But that first view was tinged with the knowledge that the Afghan had survived a blast that killed American soldiers.

“We treat our allies the same as we treat ourselves,” said Marine Capt. Stuart T. Upton. “Certainly, for anyone out there fighting alongside us, we have made available all of our medical facilities and staff.”

The friendly fire incident occurred at 10 a.m., and the base received the call to retrieve the wounded at 12:15 p.m. The rescue team returned four hours later, according to Capt. David T. Romley, a spokesman for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

“It is a one-hour flight, one way,” Romley said. “On very short order we managed to brief our pilots, brief our crewmen, brief the medical staff and all other associated personnel, go get the forces, and begin treatment and triage.”

Reporters were initially asked not to watch the wounded being taken in for treatment, but were later allowed to observe some of the activity.

As darkness fell, three Humvees with red cross insignia were seen parked by the base medical tents, where Navy doctors and other medical personnel treated the wounded. A half-dozen people were milling about, and all seemed calm. A wounded Afghan was moved on a stretcher into a tent for triage. In a nearby cargo bay, Marines continued to work on trucks.

The base has a medical facility staffed by nurses, corpsmen and 10 Navy doctors. A doctor said the hospital’s mission “is to take care of any and all wounded we receive. We’re at the far end of a logistical supply chain.”

Dirt and dust are always a problem in this harsh desert, and battlefield wounds are by their nature dirty. Triage begins on the battlefield with corpsmen, then continues on rescue helicopters and at the base medical center.

With an operating room in one tent, doctors here perform damage-control surgery before sending the wounded to ships or medical facilities in other countries. The base facility has containers of purified water for cleaning wounds and sterilizing instruments.

This week, the doctors told reporters they hoped the base would receive no casualties. They hoped for a “boring” experience in Afghanistan. Instead, they would use their skills to save the first wounded brought here.

“When you’re treating a trauma injury, there are certain people who die immediately,” a doctor said. “Others, if you get to them in the first hour, you’ll save.”