From left to right: Lt.(N) Karen Brown, Capt. Bruce Reeves, Lt. Julie Boulet, Capt. Nori Bicknell-Rushenas, Lt.(N) Cathy Campbell, Nurse Practitioner.
The nurses at Role 3 were focused and dedicated. At my request, Lt. Debbie Fredericks, one of my escorts, gave me a tour of the nurses’ quarters. Working long hours in the hospital, the nurses spend little time in their accommodations. The medical staff sleep in prefabricated huts (shacks) in one area of Kandahar Air Field. Each shack has several rooms and each room houses four people. The nurses ensured privacy in their sleeping quarters by hanging colourful fabric and carpets as room dividers. The paucity of personal effects – a few greeting cards tacked to the wall, a stuffed teddy bear propped on the bed and the requisite fan attached to the bedpost – was a poignant reminder that their life was in the hospital.