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In the Philippines, Hartgerink for the most part treated people injured in common, everyday accidents such as automobile crashes. However, a terrorist bomb that killed four and wounded 25 also brought in burn and shrapnel victims.

Maj. J. Benjamin Campbell, a CRNA from Hot Springs, Ark., had a similar experience in Iraq. Campbell, a member of the Army Reserve for 18 years, recently spent 90 days in Baghdad, and in 2002 served with his wife, Lt. Col. Mary Jane Campbell, as the sole anesthesia providers at Eagle Base in Bosnia.

He, too, treated victims from car bombs and other explosives planted by terrorists after the occupation. Injured terrorists tended to be taken elsewhere, he said, although they often treated Iraqi soldiers held in detention centers.

“We mostly seemed to get the innocent bystanders, the ones who were blown up in car bombs or were working with us and got caught in the crossfire,” Campbell said. “We treated as many Iraqis as we did American soldiers. We had the soldiers, but if in the course of any engagement an Iraqi was wounded, we were responsible for their care, too.”

Challenging conditions

Maj. Steve McColley, a CRNA from Salt Lake City and a member of the U.S. Army Reserve since 1990, also served in Iraq recently. He was deployed last March as part of the 20-person 934th Forward Surgical Team.

The FST was assigned to the Second Brigade of the Third Infantry Division and traveled all over Iraq to treat the injured. The FST members often ended up closer to the action than they would have preferred.

“We were not only right next to [the frontlines], at one time we actually got in front of the lines,” McColley said.

The FST would follow the Second Brigade. Once the fighting began, the FST members would stop, set up their tents and wait for nightfall. That’s when the casualties would begin to come in and surgery would commence.

McColley, 46, said injuries included shrapnel, gunshot wounds and injuries from hand grenades, land mines and fragmentation bombs. The FST operated on American soldiers, prisoners of war and men, women and children from the civilian population.

“The lion’s share of who we operated on were Iraqi prisoners of war and some civilians,” he said. “We treated everybody who came in our door. We turned no one away.”

McColley said keeping dust out of the operating rooms was one of the biggest problems they faced. They also had problems with their generator.

“Our problem was our generator went out on us and if the generator went out we had to use headlights and we didn’t have piped-in oxygen,” he said. “We had oxygen concentrators that ran off electricity and if we ran out, we didn’t have any backup oxygen source.”

Campbell said serving in Iraq was the hardest thing he has ever done. The environment is hostile, the heat is oppressive and there are few, if any, amenities. “You have to change your whole way of life,” he said. “There’s nothing there you’re accustomed to, so you have to learn to live differently and function differently.”

Hartgerink’s job at Langley is a lot like nurse anesthetist jobs anywhere. She provides anesthesia for knee surgeries, gallbladder surgeries and administers epidurals to grateful women in labor.

“I would say the best part of my job is being able to take the pain away,” she said. “We have a lot of babies named after us.”

The worst part? The hours.

“We work a lot of long hours and nights and weekends and holidays,” Hartgerink said. “People still have babies and get sick at all hours of the night.”

Despite their military record, most people still don’t understand how much nurse anesthetists have contributed to the country.

“It’s amazing that most people don’t know about us,” Campbell said. “But we’re the silent majority, we’re the backbone.”

Campbell and McColley both put more lucrative private practices on hold in order to serve their countries. Both said they consider it an honor to serve their country and don’t regret joining the reserves.

“There wasn’t one person who didn’t want to go,” McColley said, referring to his unit. “Everybody wanted to be there. We wanted to help out people who were over there. It was something that we volunteered for, and if they asked us to go again, we certainly would.”

Contact Scott Williams at scottwilliams21@msn.com.