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Kerry Barrett Reporting While they're not out on the frontlines, they do fight one of the biggest battles during times of war. We're talking about the doctors and staff that keep the hospital running 24 hours a day.
Balad Air Base houses the busiest trauma center of any U.S. hospital. It's another part of Life at War.
A Red Alert. An incoming mortar attack. Something Balad Air Base deals with on a fairly regular basis.
After the sirens die down or the attack is over, the clean-up begins. Sometimes it's U.S. soldiers who need medical care. More often it's Iraqis.
Capt. Scott Johnson/ 388th Fighter Pilot, 4th Fighter Squadron, Hill AFB: "I was working the line the other day and there was an insurgent leader that came through. He was hurt really badly, so much so that they were giving him all the blood. I asked what happens if an American comes in in the next five minutes? They said, 'Well, it doesn't matter. As soon as you come through that door, you're a patient, and all patients are equal.'"
Captain Scott Johnson is a pilot with the fourth fighter squadron out of Hill. He spends a lot of his free time volunteering in the hospital. They need it.
Running 24 hours a day, the staff here faces all sorts of unique challenges, such as working out of tents, battling the ever-present dust, limited resources, and noise.
Dr. Jeffrey Bailey/ Lt. Col. Air Force Physician, Trauma Surgeon Dir.: "There's a helipad right outside and when a helicopter lands at home I can hear it, but it doesn't interfere with my ability to hear the person I'm talking to. Here it does."
The hospital is set up in stages, with triage in front, where doctors determine what each patient needs, then prioritize according to the resources they have and whether they're dealing with a mass casualty.
Today it's quiet, with just one surgery going on at the end of the building. Someone's arms and hands got hurt in an explosion. They can do just about anything within these tents.
"Trauma surgery, general surgery, head and neck surgery and brain surgery, all here."
This hospital serves as a hub. All patients leaving Iraq come through. The goal is to do the emergency surgery and in 24 to 36 hours stabilize them and get them out to a hospital that can provide more long term care.
However, because Iraqi healthcare is inadequate in handling these types of injuries, a lot of them end up staying here for weeks or months at a time because there's simply nowhere to send them.
Insurgents, Iraqi civilians or soldiers, Doctor Bailey echos Capt. Johnson's statements.
"You're a doctor. You're a surgeon, and that's how you have to approach the patient. You can't factor in who they are."
It was quiet while we were there that day, but we're told they usually do around 400 surgeries there a month.
Because they have a limited supply of blood and not a lot of room to store it, you will often hear calls across the P.A. system on the base asking for blood donors, usually after a mass casualty arrives.
Wednesday, we'll hear more from Captain Johnson about how his experiences have blurred the line between black and white for him.
"That's just kind of opened my eyes to this, us always on the side of good and the Iraqis or insurgents on the side of bad. That's kind of grayed a little bit in my mind from seeing all the damage to all the different people that come through. I wish I could describe it adequately."
He goes on to say he believes very strongly in what they're doing over there and he is very motivated to do his job. But being able to put a human face to it, even if insurgents are not necessarily good human beings, is entirely different than reading about the situation thousands of miles away.
