Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
2:17 | In the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, small arms fire from above was a big problem. Army dentist Mike Barno remembers a visit to a Forward Operating Base (FOB) during which his assistant had to dodge that fire.
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His father was a career Army officer from West Point. Mike Barno did not have the desire to attend the Academy, but he was attracted to the military and went to the Citadel. There he became focused on academics and a pre-med path.
Mike Barno was leaving a class at the Citadel when he noticed students had gathered around the television in the student center. They told him a plane had just hit a building in New York. As they watched, a second plane hit and from that point forward, everything changed.
Taking advantage of an Army scholarship, Mike Barno attended dental school and became a member of the Army Dental Corps. He went to a residency at Fort Benning, where, in addition to fixing teeth, he want to Airborne School. Then he was attached to the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, which was slated for a tour in Afghanistan.
The unit prepped for a year in Hawaii for deployment to Afghanistan. Dentist Mike Barno's job was to get the men in good dental health before they shipped out. The route to the war zone was a strange one that included the North Pole and Germany.
The dentist was part of the medical company at the base in Afghanistan. Mike Barno describes the operation of that unit and the importance of his additional duty, triage officer in mass casualty events.
When a vehicle loaded with explosives blew up at the gate, dental officer Mike Barno hurried to his emergency assignment, triage at the aid station. A truck with wounded men from the Afghan Army pulled up and he jumped into the back, ready to help.
It was the spookiest place he had ever been. Army dentist Mike Barno was part of a medical team visiting even the tiniest outposts in the Afghan mountains. When he arrived, he was briefed on the last-man-standing protocol.
The sniper was hidden in the hills above the base in Afghanistan. Dental officer Mike Barno was there for routine procedures, but no one wanted to go see the dentist with that sniper out there. He got a patient eventually, the hard way.
Mike Barno explains why it may not be a great idea to take a free phone from a CIA guy. Another incident with a care package full of soap caused him to take some flack from the other guys.
Mike Barno recalls his experiences with local civilians during his tour in Afghanistan. The dental officer had staunchly pro-American Afghan translators in his company. The Afghan Army dentists weren't very friendly but the children from the nearby school sure were.
Mike Barno noticed there was suddenly a SEAL unit on the base near the Pakistan border. Then there was an order that everyone had to wear body armor all day. Something big was going on, something that would bring some closure to the 9/11 attacks.
When he got his orders to go home, Mike Barno started a game of hurry-up-and-wait. When he finally got to Hawaii, he was surprised to find a noisy 2 AM escort for the buses.
He left the Army Dental Corps and settled into private practice, but Mike Barno was having trouble due to his vivid memories of treating casualties in Afghanistan. The VA has helped him a lot, as did the blog he posted while he was in country.
