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Around midnight last night I was in the hospital helping out with three casualties who were injured when a Stryker vehicle hit an IED (improvised explosive device).  One of the soldiers was very seriously injured sustaining severe fractures to both legs, a spleen laceration, and a head injury with some bleeding into his brain.  He was urgently MEDEVAC'd to another military facility to see the neurosurgeon.

At any rate, we were told that we needed to be in the hospital at 0430 for a VIP visit to be named later. 

By 0430 there was a large group of us assembled in the hospital waiting to meet our unknown visitor.  Obviously, this was being kept a secret because someone VERY important was about to show.  Around 0515 we heard a plane land and 15 minutes later the doors to the ER opened up and in walked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.  We all were shocked, we couldn't believe it.  I know that he has had some negative press recently, but he was all class on this visit.  He started off by addressing everyone that was there to greet him, thanking us for the job that we are doing.  Then he went through our ICU and ICW to visit patients.  When he entered the patient wards he asked the news crews to turn off their cameras to respect our injured patients.  We had a recently injured soldier who received surgery a few hours later to repair a broken ankle that was sustained when his Stryker vehicle was blown up by an IED.  Mr. Rumsfeld woke him up and presented him with a Purple Heart.  Could you imagine being awaken from a deep sleep by the Secretary of Defense and then receiving a Purple Heart from him.  It was a bit overwhelming for the soldier as well as some of the crowd.  On his way out he hung around for numerous pictures.

After Rumsfeld departed, I was informed by our Public Affairs Officer (PAO) that MSNBC wanted to interview us.  Holy cow.

I finally had a chance to check my email and there were multiple emails from friends and family.  This seemed a bit strange; I had a hunch something was going on.  Apparently ABC Nightly News ran a brief feature on the website and all these people were emailing me telling me they had seen it.

Later in the day, our anesthesiologist and I called a contact at MSNBC to be interviewed.  After a few minutes they patched us through and we found ourselves waiting on hold with the show playing in the background.  It occurred to me that this was going to be a live interview.  I don't know why we didn't figure this one out earlier, but we were a bit shocked.  My colleague said, "Are they crazy?  They are going to put us on live?  Two soldiers who have been deployed for over 11 months?"  (I am not going to deny it, my use of profanity has certainly increased during the deployment)  Apparently MSNBC found out about us through this website.  Clearly they read enough to know that sometimes I can have a bit of a "potty mouth."  Well, I guess they must have some great censoring device or something because they were about to put us on live.  We were interviewed for about 5 minutes, mostly about the MASCAL and about how we handled the situation from a personal feeling perspective as well as the actual work perspective.  It went really well and we did not swear once.

Next I discover that the Philadelphia Inquirer (I am originally from a suburb outside of Philadelphia) published a FRONT PAGE article on my mother and my website.  I guess I am a bit biased, but it was extremely well done (except for that thing about being President - that was one of those childhood things that I have since outgrown). 

Well...  I guess I am a bit sorry about the comment about No Respect.  It appears that we are getting QUITE A BIT of respect.  All of this attention is a bit overwhelming.  I certainly do not feel that I deserve anymore attention than anyone else in this unit as we are all equally essential to accomplishing our mission.  However, I think that all this recent press has given the 67th CSH some needed and MUCH-deserved attention in the public eye.  The volume of emails I have received from all of this has been overwhelming.  The awesome thing about all those emails is the unanimous support of our troops here in Iraq.  Thanks to everyone who has sent emails.  I will do my best to share them with the soldiers of the 67th CSH.