Guard Medic Came to Iraq to Stay

[unhappycamper]

Guard Medic Came to Iraq to Stay
February 27, 2009
News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq -- Jonathan Laureles transferred to the Washington National Guard in 2003 to experience battlefield medicine.

He's still in Iraq five years later.

Laureles, 28, a sergeant from Texas, is midway through his sixth deployment, this time with the 181st Brigade Support Battalion, a unit of the 81st Brigade Combat Team.

"And I'll be here until 2011, when the war ends, inshallah," he said, using the Arabic phrase for "God willing."

Laureles is trained as a medic and said a love of medicine overseas keeps him in Iraq. He eventually wants to work with a nongovernmental organization such as Doctors Without Borders.


Rest of articler at: http://www.military.com/news/article/February-2009/guard-medic-came-to-iraq-to-stay.html?col=1186032310810