Lt. Amy Zaycek, the severe trauma platoon nurse with the Female Corpsman Team, poses for a photo with Afghan children during a recent patrol in the area of Now Zad, Afghanistan. The FCT recently returned to Now Zad, Jan. 3, to assist members of the Female Engagement Team, Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, with their effort to further the process of treating, educating and engaging the women of Now Zad. Zaycek is a native of Wall, N.J. Photo by Cpl. Zachary Nola

Recently during Operation Cobra’s Anger, a multi-day operation led by Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, to rid the Now Zad area of Taliban control, members of the company’s severe trauma platoon extended an invitation to members of the battalion’s civil affairs group to take cover from the rain in their mobile severe trauma bay.

Within the security and warmth of the STB the members of the two parties began talking about the day’s events.

“We started talking about stuff on the battle front,” said Cmdr. Tom Craig, the officer-in-charge of the emergency medical facility, Severe Trauma Platoon 3. “What CAG said was that there were a lot of females that needed to voice complaints and that if we could get a female in the battle zone to talk to these people, we could probably help a lot of folks.”

CAG’s observation about the female population was correct. In the Now Zad area medical treatment is scarce, often out of reach and varies in level from town to town.

Memories of Taliban repression still cause women to second guess leaving their home in search of help. For any type of surgical treatment, women must travel many miles to Lashkar Gah, where they receive no post-operational care and due to cultural practices women in the area are often uncomfortable seeking treatment from men.

“There is no doctor in the villages of [Khwaja Jamal], Changwalak, and Dehanna that the women feel comfortable going to,” said Lt. Amy Zaycek, the severe trauma platoon nurse with the FCT.

The end result of this scarcity, fear, long distance and potential embarrassment is the women of the Now Zad suffering unnecessarily.

It is because of this reason, upon returning to his forward operating base, Craig relayed this message to his command at Combat Logistics Regiment 2 and requested female support at his position.

The response to this request was the Female Corpsman Team an all female medical team consisting of a nurse and three corpsmen.

Lt. Amy Zaycek, the severe trauma platoon nurse with the Female Corpsman Team inspects the hand of an Afghan girl during a recent patrol in the area of Now Zad, Afghanistan. Photo by Cpl. Zachary Nola

“I was on a twelve-hour notice,” said Zaycek. “Cobra’s Anger had ended, people were coming to the villages, and from what Dr. Craig had gauged, female medical care was needed.”

In the wake of Cobra’s Anger the team visited surrounding areas, including the village of Changwalak, which reflected how valuable it was to have female medical personnel on hand.

“We saw approximately 40 patients there; 27 women and 13 children,” said Zaycek a native of Wall, N.J. “Something to gain from that, was that I was told we were seeing women, but the women brought their children. So, that was an unusual circumstance. In addition, it’s something that’s never gone on before.”

The FCT eventually had to move on to different operations but recently returned to Now Zad on Jan.3 to assist members of the Female Engagement Team, Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan to further the process of treating, educating and engaging the women of Now Zad.

“The FET is really riding shotgun on this but they only have one female corpsman with them so that is why we requested more help,” said Craig from Chesapeake, Va. “Of course seeing how Zaycek and her team were tried and true in the past, the command element picked them.”

Based on the teams last visit to the area the FCT will be confronted with numerous medical conditions ranging from dehydration, to joint and dysentery problems.

Another area the FCT is tackling is creating instructions for FET members on how to educate Afghan women about basic hygiene principles.

Ideas include creating a flip book for FET members which will include instructions on how to teach dental hygiene, hand washing, the importance of three meals a day and practices that will prevent clean water from becoming contaminated.

FCT members are also helping with the effort to re-establish those medical teaching aids which were once in place in Now Zad.

“Right outside the wire there is a public health area and we were able to find scrolls that had been used four or five years ago as teaching aids,” said Zaycek. “The [medical] education was here in this country. It needs to just come back.”

An informational scroll educating Afghan women about child care hangs in a building in the area of Now Zad, Afghanistan. The Female Corpsman Team recently arrived in Now Zad, to work with Female Engagement Team members, to reestablish those medical teaching aids which once existed in the area in addition to treating, educating and engaging the women of Now Zad. Photo by Cpl. Zachary Nola

Basic medical assistance is not the only the service the FCT provides. While Now Zad’s male population is forthcoming about their physical medical concerns, the area’s female population has shown an anxiety about emotional concerns. FET and FCT members have shown the ability to provide the female population an emotional outlet where they can voice mental issues and concerns.

“What [the FCT] has been able to provide is really, truly an open door. When we’ve gone out into the villages to see people, [the female population] tend to open up to the female providers,” said Craig. “When I looked at the list of complaints that the females were providing to the [FCT] it was fear of Taliban, fear that my son is going to be brought into the Taliban, fear for my family, fear for my home. A lot of fear components which the guys don’t say at all.”

Another secondary effect of the FCT is giving female medical personnel valuable field experience and knowledge, through working with the FET, which can be passed to others.

“It’s a good opportunity. A lot of corpsman will never get to come here and will never get to experience this,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Latese Smith, a hospital corpsman with FCT from Chicago, Ill. “I’m looking forward to teaching [the women] to better take care of themselves and their families.”

“We’ll take all our lessons learned, our knowledge gained, and give it to [other corpsman].” said Zaycek. “The plan is to train up other corpsman and nurses so they feel comfortable doing these missions in different locations”

While smaller than most units operating in the Now Zad area, the FCT is showing size doesn’t matter. It’s not just the impact they are having on the insurgency but the means they are using to make that impact. They are fighting the insurgency with knowledge and band-aids. Not bullets.

In recent weeks the mood in Now Zad has changed from one of constant tension to one of reconstruction. The area still presents challenges and dangers to both civilians and military forces but the positive results that Afghan national security forces, Lima Co., the FET and FCT have made are undeniable.

“It touched my heart while we were out in Dehanna seeing the kids come up us.” said the 51-year-old Craig. “Knowing that they’re actually coming to us, trusting us without fear of retribution from the Taliban, lets me know that’s a blow for freedom,”

DVIDS
Story by Cpl. Zachary Nola

Afghan children celebrate the end of the school day outside the schoolhouse in the district center of Now Zad, Afghanistan, Dec. 15. Afghan children from the Now Zad region have returned to school in the wake of an offensive, led by Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, to rid the area of Taliban influence. Photo by Cpl. Zachary Nola

In early December, the Marines of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, breached Now Zad and rid the second largest city in Helmand province of its Taliban presence during Operation Cobra’s Anger.

The Marines are now bearing witness to the results of an effective combat operation – Afghan children are back in school, markets are reopening and people are slowly returning to their homes.

Just a few years ago, Now Zad was a thriving city, home to 30,000 Afghan residents, complete with health clinics, schools, electricity, paved streets and adequate water supplies.

The city’s residents fled in 2006 due to a Taliban takeover, and were forced to pay rent to live in other villages. Constant fighting between coalition forces and Taliban fighters to lay claim to the city quickly turned the area into a no man’s land. The collateral damage associated with such fighting, coupled with neglect resulted in the city slipping into ruin.

Nevertheless, in the recent weeks the mood in this once somber area has been lifted, as citizens from the Now Zad area have returned to reclaim and rebuild.

Businessmen have returned to their shops, residents to their home and children to school.

“Cobra’s Anger gave us the chance to displace Taliban leadership, locate and destroy Taliban supply storages, [improvised explosive devices] and weapons, as well as the opportunity to further push out and secure the local populace,” said Capt. Jason Brezler, the team leader for the 3/4 civil affairs group. “In conjunction with that, we started going out and leveraging folks to return, because we know the greatest source of instability is them being displaced for such a long period of time, with really no economic means and really no economic opportunity.”

Shortly after sunrise, men of all ages arrived at the Now Zad district center with shovel in hand and swept sidewalks, removed dirt from drainage ways, salvaged bricks, cut down overgrowth and hauled trash away.

“They get paid daily 250 [Afghan dollars] ,which is a very good day’s salary for them,” said Brezler, 31, from Bronx, N.Y. “They have a legitimate means of income to put food on their tables for their families and take care of their basic needs without having to resort to working for the Taliban.”

An Afghan boy flips through a book while attending school at the Now Zad district center in Now Zad, Afghanistan, Dec. 15. Photo by Cpl. Zachary Nola

While their fathers are busy removing the stains of Taliban repression, the younger Afghan generation is busy receiving an education at the Now Zad District Center.

“The first day we put up a school, got some kids to come, told some workers we’d pay them to help start cleaning up the bazaar and district center, and then it started to build,” said Brezler. “We went from 30 workers a day to upwards of 500 a day and having 30 kids a day in school to having 160 kids a day in school.”

“In the last few weeks, everything that has happened has far exceeded my expectations,” said Brezler. “I thought even just the things that have happened to date would take potentially months.”

The reconstruction effort received a greater momentum with the arrival of Sayed Murad Agah, the Now Zad district governor, who recently toured the district center, school and bazaar.

“It’s a great thing that reconstruction is going on in the Now Zad district,” said Agah, through an interpreter. “We are showing the people that we are helping them. We can show them that the enemy, the Taliban, never helped them this way and we are here to rebuild and return them back to their own areas.”

While progress has been made, more is still to come. The future holds a continued effort to clean up the market and repair shops, homes, the schoolhouse, mosques, health clinic and basic life services.

Much work stills remains ahead in order to return Now Zad’s market and district center back to its former condition, but local villagers seem patient and determined to not only restore the area, but make it better then it was before. With the help of God, Afghan national security forces and a few Marines, the people of Now Zad are walking in the direction of peace and prosperity and setting an example for all of Afghanistan to follow.

“We still have a lot of limitations and a lot of challenges we need to overcome,” said Brezler. “But every day we’re finding ways to leave the city a little bit better at the end of that day, than it was previously.”

DVIDS
Story by Cpl. Zachary Nola