As the door to the auditorium opened, the students watched as a man in an Army uniform entered -- a man they did not know by name, but who they regarded as an American hero.Army Pfc. Kenneth Johnson, a Las Vegas native, spent an afternoon with students of the Kingman Academy earlier this year discussing the Army’s mission in Iraq during Operation New Dawn.An intelligence analyst serving with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, Johnson took a day during his environmental morale leave from Iraq to thank the people who supported him from afar.“They took the time to put together care packages and write letters to the soldiers of the battalion, so I wanted to give them something back to let them know their efforts were appreciated,â€Â Johnson said.Johnson presented the students and staff with the flag flown over the 2nd Battalion’s headquarters at Contingency Operating Site Warrior in Kirkuk, Iraq. He also gave students 12th Cavalry Regimental crests in appreciation of their continuous efforts to support the “Thunderhorseâ€Â Battalion soldiers. “I asked permission to thank them before I left [Iraq],â€Â Johnson said. “My chain of command thought it was a great idea, and they fully supported it.â€Â Johnson spoke to the students about the role and mission the Army fulfills during Operation New Dawn as American forces continue to advise, train, and assist their Iraqi counterparts as well as the challenges, experiences and realities of being a deployed soldier. He wrapped up his discussion with a lively question-and-answer session with the students. “They were very excited, and [my visit] motivated them to continue to do what they are doing for us,â€Â Johnson said. Johnson’s unit recently recognized his efforts to give back to unit supporters, presenting him with an Army Achievement Medal. But the real reward, he said, was to know how much people care. “Throughout the whole experience, I felt slightly overwhelmed and prideful to know people at home still care about us,â€Â he said. May 3, 2011: By Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Quick- U.S. Division North

As an active-duty sailor from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va., with only two years in the service, the hospitalman experienced a lot in his seven months with the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team.As a corpsman, Beheler works with a forward surgical team operating a Level 2 care facility at Forward Operating Base Wright in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. The Roanoke, Va., native said he was prepared for many of things he has seen at the facility, and for others, he was not.“It’s been real busy at times,â€Â Beheler said. “When we’ve got operations going on in our area, many casualties will come in through our [facility]. They’ll use anyone with medical experience to help, and I really wasn’t prepared for that. I’m used to seeing things in the field, not seeing things in a clinical setting. That took some getting used to.â€ÂBeheler, who received an Army Commendation Medal with Valor for saving the life of a fellow provincial reconstruction team member who suffered a gunshot wound, said being on patrols still is the most challenging aspect of his job. “When you’re out doing missions, we are that medical asset,â€Â Beheler said. “I know that I can fight my way to you, treat you and fight my way back with you. There’s only one medical corpsman on the crew, so you better know what you’re doing.â€Â Navy Lt. Cmdr. Lynn Redman of San Antonio, nurse practitioner with the team, said she's impressed with Beheler’s performance and that she is so confident in the work he does, she would trust him to treat one of her children. “He’s handled everything very concisely,â€Â Redman said. “He’s consistent. He’s bottom-line. I don’t have to wonder about him. He is my lowest-ranking corpsman, but he is a hard-charger. He’s very knowledgeable. He should have been a doctor.â€Â Beheler said one of the best things he’s experienced has been the people he works with and the friends he made within the unit. Army Sgt. Patrick Johnson of Worcester, Mass., said Beheler is a good medic and a great listener and learner, and that this experience will help Beheler in the future. “He’s been a delightful subordinate,â€Â Johnson said. “He’s quick to listen, learn and volunteer, and that is at the core of being a great corpsman. He’s going to leave here with so much knowledge. He’s also become a close, personal friend of mine. I’m proud to have met and known him.â€Â Beheler said his teammates are great to work with and have made his experience rewarding. “I couldn’t have asked for any better people to work with,â€Â Beheler said. “There are three corpsmen and one Army medic. We all have our little specialty. We work really, really well together. There’s a mutual respect there that has a lot to do with it, too. We actually care about one another.â€Â May 2, 2011: By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Chuck Walker- Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team

Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Raymond Fang, director of trauma at Landstuhl for the past seven years, will serve as director of the Air Force’s Center for the Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills program –- known as “C-STARSâ€Â -– which is affiliated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Medical Center.The state-of-the-art center admits more than 7,000 trauma patients and performs more than 8,000 surgeries per year. It’s the longest-standing of three C-STARS programs the Air Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute runs in conjunction with civilian hospital trauma centers. The others are at St. Louis University and the University of Cincinnati. The Army and Navy have similar programs, Fang noted. The Army runs its program through the Army Team Training Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. The Navy Trauma Training Center is affiliated with the Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center. The Air Force’s C-STARS program started about 10 years ago, when the military saw very few trauma patients, and with only a few exceptions, looked to civilian trauma centers to treat military trauma patients. “So in order to maintain trauma care experience, the military knew it had to engage with civilian centers that are busy,â€Â Fang said. Now through C-STARS, Air Force physicians, nurses and medical technicians rotate through these trauma centers, working side by side with civilian medical staff as they provide hands-on trauma patient care under the supervision of military and civilian staff. “They embed a team of Air Force personnel who on a daily basis take care of trauma patients and sick patients to maintain that experience,â€Â Fang said. The Cincinnati program is dedicated to training medical professionals for the critical care air transport team mission that treats the most critical patients during aeromedical evacuations. But in Baltimore, Fang will take his vast experience gained treating service members evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan to prepare other Air Force medical personnel to follow in his footsteps. Civilian trauma patients typically suffer from blunt trauma from a car or motorcycle accident or a penetrating trauma from a gunshot or stabbing, he explained. Combat wounded troops frequently suffer both, he added, as well as blast injuries. “With these blast injuries, you get the blunt part of the concussive wave, you get the penetrating part of the fragment, you get the heat part with the burns,â€Â he said. “You also get the blast component: the shock wave, the pressure wave of the blast itself. So we have four mechanisms in one. It’s our most common mechanism of injury here.â€Â Fang said the C-STARS program helps to pass critical trauma-care skills to Air Force medical staffs. “As other Air Force members prepare to go downrange, they come and rotate with you, and you give them an immersion experience in how to take care of this patient population,â€Â he said. “We take our own personal experience, we take real patient situations and we try to let the people who rotate with us learn from what we have all learned already, rather than relearn things or make things up on their own.â€Â April 27, 2011: By Donna Miles- American Forces Press Service