Photos

Troops wait in line to donate blood April 13, 2006, as Camp Taqaddum?s main surgical facility handles a sudden rush of injured service members from an insurgent attack in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq. Often, personnel at Camp Taqaddum will show up within five minutes of the request going out, said Cmdr. Richard L. Schroff, officer in charge of Taqaddum Surgical. Since taking over the facility March 3, Schroff, a 43-year-old native of Carrollton, Va., and his unit have used the emergency blood donation system seven times, including a stretch of four out of five days recently. Taqaddum Surgical handles the duties of both a shock trauma platoon and a forward resuscitative surgical suite, which are essentially makeshift emergency and operating rooms. When a service member is injured in battle, he receives specialized resuscitative treatment from the STP, with surgery provided by the FRSS. More extensive care is provided at one of the Combat Army Surgical Hospitals in Baghdad or Balad.