When you're stuck in Iraq for the Fourth of July, you have to get creative. Capt. Nate Rawlings' celebration involved a goat, a lamb, a medical training exercise and a large translator named Whopper.
The idea for our Fourth of July celebration came from my two youngest soldiers and led to the most useful, yet bizarre training event I have ever seen. Spc. Matthew "Doc" Pooley, my 24-year-old combat medic, had just finished recounting his medical training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, when Spc. Blake Colson, a 21-year-old rifleman, shouted, "Hey Capt. Rawlings, can you get us a goat?"
"What the hell do you want with a goat?" I asked. |