Army Medic Delays College for tour of duty in Afghanistan

Article From the University of South Carolina Upstate

Combat Medic Delays College for Tour of Duty in Afghanistan

Spartanburg, S.C. – “My strongest trait is being able to adapt,” says William Slater, a 20-year-old freshman from Lynchburg, S.C. who after a one-year tour of duty in Afghanistan is now enrolled in the Mary Black School of Nursing at the University of South Carolina Upstate.

Like many high school seniors, he spent his last year of high school investigating and preparing for college. Although Slater didn’t initially consider the military as a route to college, a National Guard recruiter laid out several options that would help pay for college. He planned to join the National Guard, receive training as a medic, and then head off to college.

He completed basic training at Ft. Jackson in the summer of 2006, and was sent to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Tex. for advanced individual training. It was there that he received combat medical training which included EMT certification, basic CPR, bleeding control, trauma and clinical procedure training.

During practice exercises for his AIT graduation ceremony in December 2006, Slater’s drill sergeant approached him. “He had a serious look on his face,” says Slater, “and he handed me a memo. He said, ‘Welcome to Iraq.’”

The Army had other plans for Slater. And so adapt, he did.

Slater returned to Lynchburg to visit with family and friends for a few weeks before reporting for mobilization training in Camp Shelby, Miss. For three months, he went through medical skills, navigation and rifle marksmanship refresher courses. He also received cultural awareness training and some language classes. His unit, the 163^rd Charlie Company, had 60 soldiers including medics, radiology techs, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and logistics personnel. After a short home leave, he boarded a plane in May 2007, and after stops in Bangor, Maine and Ireland, he arrived in Kuwait. Before leaving the U.S., he learned that he would be sent to Afghanistan instead of Iraq, and he found himself adapting once again.

“In the Army,” says Slater, “plans change.”

After arriving in Kabul he stayed at Camp Phoenix, a large coalition forces base about ten minutes from Kabul International airport. Next he was sent to Kandahar Airfield, another large base, and from there he was sent north to Zabul Province which was to become his permanent duty station. Slater was attached to an Embedded Training Team within Zabul Province’s two districts, Shajoy and Qalat.

Using an interpreter, Slater’s duties included training the Afghan medical personnel in combat medic skills. “They are making great strides,” says Slater of the Afghan army, “but they still have a long way to go.”

He also treated American and coalition forces with injuries ranging from heat exhaustion to triage and treatment of gunshot wounds. The local Afghans also came to him and his unit for treatment of medical problems.

Slater’s tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2007 was the first and only time he had travelled outside the United States.

“They have pretty good food there,” says Slater, “but they really like their tea. You have to be ready to drink lots of tea – tea with everything – all day long.” The Afghans, he says, were all very hospitable, offering him anything they had, despite the widespread poverty.

“It really is a third world country,” he says.

Despite the friendly interactions, Slater says that danger was always imminent. “I had to have tunnel vision,” he says, “and focus on the task at hand. Combat medics have to treat in the field, and it could be a dangerous situation sometimes.” In fact, Slater was awarded two bronze stars, one of which was for valor during a four-day operation in the Daychopan district of Zabul province in which he was  exposed to direct and indirect fire while providing treatment to coalition forces.

Even though his plans had changed, Slater never forgot his goal of going to college. From an internet connection in Zabul Province, he applied to the Mary Black School of Nursing.

“My main priority was to get my education back on track and USC Upstate offered the best nursing program,” he says.  He was accepted in the spring of 2008, and started courses at USC Upstate this fall.  “I’m adapting again,” he says, “to being here.”

Dean of the Mary Black School of Nursing, Marsha Dowell, RN, PhD., who was an Army nurse in the Vietnam war, says Slater’s experience providing medical assistance during wartime “not only changes one as a person, but also shapes the ways in which you provide any future health care.” Dowell adds that the type of experience Slater has “lays a strong foundation for rapid assessments and decision making and collaborative judgments in the provision of quality care.”

Slater’s future plans include becoming an emergency room nurse or an operating room nurse, but his enlistment in the National Guard runs through 2011. And as he learned from his experience in the Army, “you just never know” when you’ll be called upon to adapt again.