By Blankenship, Janie Despite sometimes-horrendous conditions, these caregivers save as many lives as possible in Iraq. "Limbs dangled from bodies, held by a slight thread of flesh, or they had been ripped off completely," writes Navy Cmdr.

By Dean Baker, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash. Sep. 26--Twenty-six soldiers from the Vancouver-based 396th Combat Support Hospital have returned safely to the United States after a year in Iraq and are expect to arrive at Portland International Airport on Monday.

By Shannon Collins Approximately 150 base volunteers and 380 Airmen with the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group moved patients and equipment as they closed the doors on the old Air Force Theater Hospital and opened the doors to their pre-engineered facility at Balad Air Force Base, Iraq August 3.

By Blankenship, Janie From the battlefield to U.S. soil, the wounded rely on aeromedical teams to get them home. Often in today's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we hear of wounded troops waking in stateside hospitals with no recollection of getting there.

By Sean Cockerham, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. Oct. 15--MOSUL, IRAQ -- Sometimes the base can seem almost like a normal place. There's a 7-Eleven, a Java Hut and a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store.