Kuwait deployment

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aau22

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Hey all,

Army dermatologist here. Volunteered for a Kuwait deployment yesterday. Anyone been recently that can give me some insight on what to expect? It is the back end of a split and figured I couldn't get a much better tasking, other than if it were my actual specialty, and those spots do not exist anymore. I don't have many details yet on where I will be but it is a mid August leave date. Appreciate any tips on what to bring, what to expect, etc. time to brush up on my sick call medicine!
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aau22 said:
Hey all,

Army dermatologist here. Volunteered for a Kuwait deployment yesterday. Anyone been recently that can give me some insight on what to expect? It is the back end of a split and figured I couldn't get a much better tasking, other than if it were my actual specialty, and those spots do not exist anymore. I don't have many details yet on where I will be but it is a mid August leave date. Appreciate any tips on what to bring, what to expect, etc. time to brush up on my sick call medicine!
Click to expand...
Expect URIs, sore knees, sore ankles, sore backs, ingrown toenails, and rashes. 🙂
 
Sunscreen...got it! 🙂 I about fell off my chair when I saw that temps can be 130-150 there over the summer. Good Lord.
 
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Profis doc to an area support medical company. I am waiting for info but I think Beuhring with weekly trips to AJ one day per week. Got any good tips for me?
 
I was in Buehring this past fall, also on the back end. The nice thing about being on the back-end is that you don't have to do all the leg work and get commanders to write memos to get you out of theater. You could also get on one of the earlier flights when it comes time to redeploy back to the US (the unit staggers the redeployment). Thing that sucks about it you most likely will be doing a lot of post-deployment health assessments (PDHA) for all returning soldiers. Pack light. I got the address of my unit and shipped a foot locker with some essentials (bedding, shower supplies etc) so it met me by the time I was there. There is a fairly good P/X on the base where you can get most items you need. Amazon ships there. We were able to wear civilian clothes after "duty hours" but that may have changed with the new brigade out of Colorado. Get a bicycle when you are out there. It's a sprawling base and you don't want to walk around in the extreme heat. Personally I preferred the free bike rental through the MWR because they dealt with all the maintenance while you have the bike.

If you are an 04 and above your accommodations are decent. You'll get your own room with a tv (with cable), bed, dresser drawer, closet/locker with ability to be padlocked, and full sized refrigerator. You will share a bathroom with just one other suitemate. It's much better accommodations than Arifjan. The DFAC blows. There are several other food options but it's mainly fast food. Getting wireless is not hard. It ranges from wireless hotspot devices to a prepaid card. The prepaid card is through a local service (Quality net). The Quality net has strong enough signal to skype or facetime but you are restricted to only connecting to it with one device. The wireless hotspots have several different service providers and can come in 3G or 4G. Definitely bring a tablet, smartphone and/or laptop computer. If you have an unlocked phone, you can get a local SIM card out there so you can be reached locally. I didn't do that but I used my iPhone with iMessage or audio Facetime to talk keep in communications with others out there (as long as they also had Apple product). Look up camp buehring craig's list on facebook. It's a FB group where you can buy and sell used stuff.

I am a sub-specialist who was a battalion surgeon out there. The work will be boring. I didn't bother bringing any reference books. Uptodate was my friend out there. There's be a bunch of unit PAs. They tend to be good at stuff like removing ingrown toenails or other minor procedures that a specialist has never done. They can be good resources for those types of things. I got up to speed after 2-4 weeks on musculoskeletal exam and writing temporary profiles. Make sure you are registered on E-Profiles so you can write them.

That's the basics so far. PM me if you have any specific questions.
 
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Wow thank you SO much for the detailed reply. Sent you a PM as well. I just found out the doc there has asked to be extended. My command is saying that it doesn't matter if they want to stay or not due to an Army ALARACT that says all docs can only go for 4.5 months. Has anyone heard this? I think it's insane to force us to swap out if she wants to stay.
 
aau22 said:
I just found out the doc there has asked to be extended. My command is saying that it doesn't matter if they want to stay or not due to an Army ALARACT that says all docs can only go for 4.5 months. Has anyone heard this? I think it's insane to force us to swap out if she wants to stay.
Click to expand...

Unless this is hot off the press, this is news to me. I have a buddy (doc) who was deployed to Kuwait this past spring. He's doing close to 8 months because they couldn't find a replacement. While I was there there were several docs, not organic to the unit, who did the 9 months or close to it because their home station couldn't or didn't want to find a replacement. That is why coming on the back-end is nice. All the work has to be done for the split on the front end once boots on the ground. Some of these line commanders can be fickle or douche-bags and deny the request for a split (as was the case with nephrologist I was deployed with). As far as I know most MEDCOM deployment orders are for 9 months with a provision allowing for a split.
 
aau22 said:
Sunscreen...got it! 🙂 I about fell off my chair when I saw that temps can be 130-150 there over the summer. Good Lord. Once again in the amazing wisdom of the military, I was one of only 4 eligible for this deployment at my MEDDAC somehow (and figured I would get tagged anyway if I did not volunteer) which will leave us with one derm who sees clinic 2-3 days per week since she is Dept of Med chief. Ay yay yay!
Click to expand...

But it's dry heat man! 🙂
 
backrow said:
Until it rains 🙂. And then you get to trudge through this mud that is ridiculous...but that shouldn't be too much an issue in well developed Kuwait.
Click to expand...

Yeah sand with flash flooding is like walking in butterscotch pudding. No fun at all!
 
If you were a GMO, it should be routine. If not, it could be challenging.
 
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