battalion aid station (BAS)

Today I thought that I would write about my beloved BAS. We have two tents that are back to back that form our BAS. We have a few make shift treatment rooms, a decent formulary, no running water and no bathroom. We do have an air conditioning system that is a big tube that hangs from the ceiling that has multiple holes that you can velcro open or shut. The air con usually works, but we anticipate a power outage about once a day from our generator. There is a good layer of dust on the floor, computer, desk, phone, me.....
We have corpsmen from different walks of life and different areas of medicine which makes for an interesting crew. We wear our battle dress uniform every day as well as our weapons. Conveniently the smoking pit is just across the gravel from us (who made that decision). Luckily I have a chief and a few corpsmen that are addicted and can sit there and disseminate useful information to the smoking troops about preventative medicine :)
I have gone from an office with a phone, internet, e-mail, scanner, desk space, file cabinets and a window to a three foot carved out area on a picnic bench that serves as our admin space. We have a computer that could compete with the best machines ever produced .... in the 80's. We have one phone that serves 20 people.
Most of what I see is very general medicine and my pediatric and allergy talents are not going to be adequately used, but my mission is to serve the Marines and I am willing and able to provide that service. Though the BAS is primitive, it is actually better than I envisioned and the corpsmen I work with are great.





<-----Our crew


BAS

Welcome to my world!