European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 26, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pages stars and stripes thursday april 26 2007 a Hospital technician at the Ibn Sina Hospital emergency room attends to pfc Dustin Fritschel 20 of Lockport i who was injured by mortar shrapnel in Baghdad it coi Robert Stewart chief of surgery at Ibn Sina Hospital in Baghdad Green zone performs surgery on a wounded Soldier on monday photos by Helen he stars and stripes combat commoners replace elite patients by Helen he stars and stripes Baghdad r if these old Walls could talk what strange tales they could Tell Ibn Sina Hospital was where Saddam Hussein his relatives and government officials went to get Well it was not intended to be a place where commoners took their ills the Hospital named after a Muslim philosopher and physician had a Whirlpool Bath in its physical therapy room and oxygen and nitrogen pumped through Walls at bedside if needed Ibn Sina was a place for the privileged it was not built to handle a Large volume of patients then Saddam was toppled and the us army took Over Ibn Sina and it has be come a key Hospital in Baghdad seeing bomb blast cuts severe Burns gunshot wounds and other combat related injuries pfc Michelle Chavez was a medic with the 28th combat support Hospital when it first took Over Ibn Sina located in the Forti fied Green zone she left when the unit departed from Iraq in 2004 and returned with the 28th when it again took charge of the Hospital Las fall she remembers the first pos Saddam Days there was a lot of functioning medical it scanner Fri full operating rooms and i remember thinking this was nothing the local population could use under said Chavez 29 of Huntington Beach Calif there were even materials for doing Acu puncture and acupressure treatments ashtrays were scattered about and a Cou ple of portraits of Saddam were found on the site and taken Down old vaccination records were discovered and tossed it was cluttered recalls sgt 1st class Kesha White 34 of fort Lauderdale a a lab tech certainly parts were really Nice like the bathrooms and xray area but you could Tell someone had vandalized it and pulled out stuff they wanted to take my opinion was it needed a lot of work said staff sgt Victor settles 34 of san Antonio a surgical technician it was like starting Over in a sense the electricity in Baghdad was unreliable and so was the hospitals big red Generator the staff didst want to use the elevator to take patients upstairs fearing it would come to a halt the army got to work cleaning the hos Pital installing a new Generator and replacing outdated or foreign equipment and Medicine with american versions the Whirlpool Bath was hauled out of the physical therapy area and lugged Down stairs to a spot near the emergency room with the thought that it might be a Nice perk for the staff it didst fit in the space within Days patients were being trans ported by Black Hawk helicopters from the hospitals previous site at la dog Wood Southwest of Baghdad to Ibn Sina today a room where Saddam malevolent son Odai once recuperated from an at tack by gunmen is the head nurses office soldiers contractors and some iraqis come through the Marble floored emergency room and Turquoise tiled front lobby and someone who was once seen at Ibn Sina As a boy in the mid80s is Back he had gone shoeless As a child and Hurt his foot his father had a Friend who was a government Security officer so the boy could get treated at the Hospital he was put in a wheelchair and his foot was treated Emai Helen he at i questions Hal staff Flag order stars and stripes in a rare opinion piece issued As a news release by the us com Mand in Afghanistan a Soldier has voiced a complaint against the order to put base flags at Hal staff for the Virginia tech shooting victims but not for sol Diers killed in combat sgt Jim Wilt assigned to the combined joint task force82 Public affairs office wrote i find it ironic that the flags were flown at Hal staff for the Young men and women who were killed at it yet it is never lowered for the death of a us servicemen Ber is the life of sgt Alexander Vanaalten a member of our very own task Force killed april 20 in Helmand province not valued the same As these 32 students surely his death was As violent As the Stu dents in the aftermath of the Virginia tech shootings president Bush ordered All american flags be flown at Hal staff for a week Bagram air base like Many other us installations across the world has been following that edict Wilts article was picked up by several news outlets and popular blogs and has now gained wide circulation i think it is sad that we do not raise the bases Flag to Hal staff when a member of our own task Force Dies he wrote depart ment of defense directives Man Date we Honor our fallen leaders from former presidents to the state governors but there is no provision for the men and women who die preserving our Way of life i can understand not lower ing flags across the country for the death of a single be Mcmeem Ber but  the service members state lower the Flag to show their respect to the fallen trooper if Only for one Day some states do but not All of them sgt 1st class Dean Welch who works with Wilt told the associated press that the piece was a soldiers commentary not the View of the coalition and not the View of the us forces in the piece Wilt noted that the relatively common occurrence of combat deaths Doest have the Shock Factor of the University shootings but should be memorialized just As much int it time our Flag saluted Back when a person makes the ultimate sacrifice  the Flag which represents our society tip its hat when someone Dies to ensure it will Fly another Day Wilt wrote if the flags on our fobs Forward operating bases were lowered for just one Day after the death of a servicemen Ber it would show the people who knew the person that society cared the american people care us Al Aida in Iraq Security Emir dead stars and stripes the us military said tuesday that it had killed an Al Aida in Iraq Security Emir during operations last week Northwest of Baghdad identified As Muhammad Abdullah Abbas alis Sawi and also Asaua Balsat tar and Abu Man was believed responsible for terrorist attacks in Eastern Anbar province particularly Karma and Amariyah near fal Lujah coalition forces were conduct ing operations targeting associates of a known senior Leader Satt Arwas accused of supplying weapon to insurgents within Almaeda in Iraq during the operation the terrorists engaged ground forces with Small arms fire a military news re lease said coalition forces used appropriate Sel defense Mea sures and engaged the armed men killing two and detaining one one of the terrorists killed has been positively identified As Abu Abd Alattar assault vests weapons hand grenades and suicide bomb vests were recovered at the site officials said accused of supplying weapons to insurgents and was allegedly linked to re cent chlorine bomb attacks across Iraq