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Soldiers lend helping hands - and legs - to Iraqi amputees
 September 29, 2004
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 Staff Sgt. Chris Cummings, left, 478th Civil Affairs Battalion, and Capt. Steve Lindsley, 112th Military Police Battalion, brace the arm of an Iraqi patient who will also receive a new leg.
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Staff Sgt. Chris Cummings, a member of the Army Reserve’s 478th Civil Affairs Battalion from Miami, ran a prosthetics company before he was mobilized.
Now, to help Iraqi amputees in Baghdad, Cummings has combined his background in prosthetics with Capt. Steve Lindsley of the Mississippi-based 112th Military Police Battalion. Lindsley is a certified prosthetist with the Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Monroe, La. The two Soldiers have identified more than 60 Iraqi amputees, many of them children and teenagers, who would like to have new limbs.
“Captain Lindsley came up with the idea of starting a free prosthetics clinic in Iraq for local people regardless of age," Cummings said.
“Captain Lindsley’s civilian boss, Chris Wallace at MRC, has been very supportive with materials," Cummings said, "and the Army has been supportive by providing us with time and a place to help people in need.”
The two Soldiers are working almost every day at the Grey Wolf Forward Operation Base in Baghdad’s International Zone, taking measurements for the construction of new limbs for Iraqis in the program. Work is also performed on bracing limbs that cannot support themselves.
Cummings was scheduled to go home in early October, but he has chosen to stay and help more Iraqi amputees.
“I promised a lot of people I was going to help them — I can’t go back on my promises,” Cummings said. “I am extending to keep those promises. We hope to have new arms and legs for people starting in mid-October of this year.”
(Editor's note: Information provided by Sgt. 1st Class Clarence Kugler, 478th Civil Affairs Battalion to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command News Service.)
Army doctor gives textbooks to Iraqi nurses
September 24, 2004
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 Maj. Michael Helwig, surgeon for the Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, turns over donated textbooks to an official from the Ninevah Province Ministry of Health.
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Maj. Michael Helwig and other Army medical professionals in Iraq distributed about 500 donated textbooks to nurses from the Ninevah Province Ministry of Health Sept. 21.
The textbooks will be divided between the area hospitals and universities in Mosul, Irbil and Dahuk, officials said.
“The local hospitals have been using shared photocopied pages out of textbooks for their research,” said Helwig, the Brigade Surgeon for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team).
Helwig is a 1990 graduate of the University of Florida in Gainesville and a Clearwater, Fla., native.
A group of students at the University of Florida organized a book drive to collect the medical textbooks for the Iraqi nurses. Faculty from the All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., also donated their used textbooks.
F Troop Soldiers get ARCOMs for valor in Iraq
September 17, 2004
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 1st Lt. Carl E. Gregory, of 4th PLT, F Troop, 4th Cavalry, is awarded an Army Commendation Medal with valor from Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, commander of 3rd BCT, 1st ID.
Spc. Sherree Casper |
Four Soldiers from 4th Platoon, F Troop, 4th Cavalry, have been awarded Army Commendation Medals with valor for their heroism while combating enemy forces in Baqubah, Iskandariah and Najaf, Iraq, last April.
1st Lt. Carl E. Gregory, Sgt. Mitchell W. Wagner, Spc. Paul Carrisoza and Pfc. John M. White were presented medals by
Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, during a brief ceremony Aug. 6 at Forward Operating Base Warhorse.
The first three Soldiers were attached to a tank company during the first battle of Baqubah from April 11 to 13 and were able to open up an avenue of approach to attack in the center of the city.
Cpt. John S. Combs, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor, 1st Infantry Division, said that the three “undoubtedly saved the lives of many Soldiers” with their “aggressive attitude and willingness to fight under less than ideal conditions.”
White was driving a reconnaissance humvee north of FOB Whitehorse in April when he saw his wingman’s vehicle struck by an RPG. White “instinctively grabbed the Combat Lifesaver’s bag and while receiving enemy small arms fire, moved tactically to the aid of his wounded comrade,” a witness reported.
White was lauded for maintaining “selfless service, composure, courage and discipline under extreme circumstances.”
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