Safe in Bayside after a year in Iraq

Some 393 members of the 344th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) returned safely to their home base of Fort Totten, Bayside after a 12-month deployment in Iraq.
The 344th CSH was assigned to serve detainees at the Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca Prison hospitals, as well as attend to the medical needs of the United States, Coalition and Iraqi forces. All told, the soldiers of 344th were away from home for eighteen months because of 6 months' training prior to the deployment.
The 344th is part of the Army Reserve's AR-MEDCOM whose mission is to provide medical care in the theater of operations or wherever assigned. A spokesperson for the 8th Medical Brigade which oversees the 344th, John La Rocca, described the 344th's task as a Combat Support Hospital as providing resuscitating, initial wound surgery and postoperative treatment. &#8220Patients are stabilized for further evacuation,” he said, adding, &#8220That's why you hear about troops being evacuated to Germany, or back home.”
The unit has approximately 500 members, although only 250 were stationed in Iraq for the full 12 months, La Rocca said. &#8220The professionals, the doctors and dentists rotate on a 90-day basis. The unit provides full medical services including routine medical, dental, psychiatric, laboratory and X-ray services for American troops stationed in Iraq.
The special training the unit received included how to take care of prisoners, what to look for and cultural training to enable the staff to understand their patients. &#8220The 344th is a full hospital,” La Rocca said, &#8220employing nurses, medics, supply personnel, mechanics and record keepers.”
The 344th was exposed to the full dangers of life in Iraq, suffering &#8220mortar and rocket attacks, ambushes and threats from the detainees they were treating,” a spokesperson for the division said.