By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tami Hillis
3rd Infantry Division, 4th Brigade Combat Team

Army Spc. Takeysha Washington, a medic with 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, holds an Iraqi child as she takes the pulse and temperature of an Iraqi woman during a cooperative medical engagement July 9, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Tami Hillis, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 32nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, secured the area along with U.S. Soldiers in Company D, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, attached to 1st Battalion, 76th Field Artillery, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and used a school as a makeshift clinic to offer care to local Iraqis.

Village residents poured in from the streets, forming a line outside the school.

“I think this is very good,” an Iraqi medic said. “It’s good to help out the people, and we have a good relationship with the Coalition forces.”

In preparation for the engagement, the unit came out to the Juhaysh village to see what the people have and don’t have, Army Capt. John Zdeb, commander of Company D, 3-7th Infantry Regiment, said.

“We asked the sheiks to identify their needs, and medical service was one of their highest priorities,” said the seven-year Army veteran, who is on his second Iraq deployment. “[A combined medical engagement] was one of the easier things to do. A lot of the bigger projects, like getting the canals working and other stuff, involve higher-level influence and a lot of money, so this was relatively low-budget, high-payoff.”

Medical personnel saw about 280 patients, ranging from infants to elderly, with various ailments. Medical issues ranged from common joint and back pain to infections and gastrointestinal disorders.

“Most of the ailments were from the water. … We will look at coming back here to help them out with education; do a [mission] to show them how to properly purify the water, things like that,” Army Capt. K.C. Woody, commander of Company C, 703rd BSB, said.

Most of the medications distributed were over-the-counter medicines, such as pain medication, multivitamins, antibiotics and topical medicines for rashes. “We bought all the medications from the market in Iskandariyah, so it’s all stuff bought off the Iraqi economy, stuff that they can get, so it’s a step in the right direction,” Woody said.

Each patient received an evaluation, treatment, medicine if needed, and humanitarian assistance such as water, food and personal hygiene items.