Healing the wounds of war (Report from Walter Reed Hospital)

[RamboLiberal]

Forgive me if this is a dupe.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/6587490.htm

You don't hear much about them or see their faces very often, but you should. Planes land at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington every night bringing these American soldiers home from Iraq the hard way.

Ambulances ferry them to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where doctors and nurses stand ready to rush them into the operating rooms.

Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the commander of Walter Reed and a medical doctor, said that since the beginning of July, two months after the official end of major combat operations, there had been only two days when his hospital hadn't received soldier casualties.

More than 1,000 injured American soldiers have flowed through Walter Reed since the war in Iraq began, and another 300 have arrived from the continuing conflict in Afghanistan since it began in October 2001.

"We are in this for the long haul," Kiley said. "This is going to continue for a long, long time."

They come with terrible shrapnel wounds, missing limbs and often with blood infections. But out of the 1,300 who have passed through Walter Reed, only one has died.