The military publication, the Voice of America, has an article today called, "Combat Psychologist Treats Trauma, and Deals with Her Own," about Heidi Squier Kraft, who served as a Navy psychologist at the combat hospital in Al-Asad, Iraq, and has recently published a book about her experiences called, Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital. Here's what the basic information about the book is:
Book Description
When Lieutenant Commander Heidi Kraft's twin son and daughter were fifteen months old, she was deployed to Iraq.A clinical psychologist in the US Navy, Kraft's job was to uncover the wounds of war that a surgeon would never see.She put away thoughts of her children back home, acclimated to the sound of incoming rockets, and learned how to listen to the most traumatic stories a war zone has to offer.One of the toughest lessons of her deployment was perfectly articulated by the TV show M*A*S*H: "There are two rules of war. Rule number one is that young men die. Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one." Some Marines, Kraft realized, and even some of their doctors, would be damaged by war in ways she could not repair. And sometimes, people were repaired in ways she never expected. RULE NUMBER TWO is a powerful firsthand account of providing comfort admidst the chaos of war, and of what it takes to endure.
About the Author
Heidi Squier Kraft spent nine years as a psychologist for the US Navy before leaving active duty in March 2005. She lives in San Diego with her husband and children.
Click here for a link to the article in the Voice of America. The article is a little surfacey, but still worth reading, about the special considerations of a trauma care provider who's also exposed to the same trauma in combat. If you want to read more about women troop's experiences in the Iraq war, try also Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq, by Kirsten Holmstedt. And if you want to read a book about a combat doctor's time in Iraq, read the aptly-titled, On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story, by Cdr. Richard Jadick, or A Doctor Looks at War: My Year in Iraq, by Michael C. Hodges. Those books aren't necessarily going to focus much on combat trauma, but at least they're tangentially on the topic. And if you just plain miss M*A*S*H, there are a couple of cool items on YouTube: a tribute to the show, with a great choral version of the theme song, Suicide is Painless, playing in the background; and a straight-up acoustic guitar version of the song which is also wonderful, below:
