Published online September 1, 2004
PEDIATRICS Vol. 114 No. 3 September 2004, pp. 898 (doi:10.1542/peds.2004-1254)
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Military Pediatricians in Southwest Asia

Charles W. Callahan, DO, FAAP
Colonel, United States Army Medical Corps,
Pediatric Consultant to the Surgeon General,
Tripler Army Medical Center,
Honolulu, Hawaii
8th Medical Brigade,
Camp Arifjan, Kuwait

Andrew E. Doyle, MD
Major, United States Army Medical Corps,
Charlie Company, 26th Support Battalion (Forward)

Erik P. Schobitz, MD
Captain (P), United States Army Medical Corps,
Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment

To the Editor.—

It has been 5 years since the 50th anniversary of military pediatrics. Members of the American Academy of Pediatrics have reason to be proud of the role of their colleagues in uniform in the ongoing conflict in Southwest Asia. Nearly 100 active-duty and reserve military pediatricians from the Army, Air Force, and Navy have deployed to support Coalition Forces since the fall of 2002. In particular, 72 active-duty Army pediatricians have deployed for up to 1 year each, which represents 35% of all active-duty Army pediatricians (72 of 207). In fact, the first uniformed physicians who entered Iraq, and the furthest forward during the offensive phase of the conflict, were 2 Army pediatricians.

The deployed pediatricians have provided direct, primary, and acute emergency trauma care for the adolescents who make up 42% of the Army (<24 years old) as well as older members of the Army Forces.1 In the current phase of the war, they are also providing care to underserved children in Iraq and Afghanistan. A broad range of expertise in pediatrics has been represented in Southwest Asia. Pediatric subspecialists fellowship-trained in pulmonology, hematology/oncology, infectious diseases, neonatology, critical care, cardiology, and adolescent medicine have deployed with generalists. In most cases, all the pediatricians have deployed as general medical officers, field surgeons, health care administrators, and staff officers. The Commanding General of medical forces in Iraq is a pediatrician. Several pediatricians have been specifically requested by specialty for deployment to Afghanistan because of the large amount of pediatric trauma and illness coalition forces encounter there.

Pediatricians have participated in every major conflict involving American armed forces in the last half-century.2 Although the American military has long been engaged in humanitarian operations, complex humanitarian emergencies of the past 20 years have revealed the key role that pediatricians can play.3 Typically in these emergencies, >70% of the victims have been civilians, primarily children and adolescents.4 Although major armed conflict in Southwest Asia continues for Coalition Forces, the battle to rebuild the health care systems in the affected countries and to improve the health of their children has just begun. Uniformed pediatricians will play an important role in that battle as well.

FOOTNOTES

The views and opinions expressed in this letter are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government.

REFERENCES

  1. US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. Medical surveillance monthly report. 2003;9:29
  2. Callahan C. The roots of American military humanitarianism. AMEDD J. 2001;PB 8-01-7/8/9:39-42. Available at: http://das.cs.amedd.army.mil/PDF/J0107-09.pdf. Accessed July 12, 2004
  3. Callahan C, Bass J, Person D, Shira J. History of military pediatrics: fifty years of training and deploying uniformed pediatricians. Pediatrics. 1999;103 :1298 –1303[Free Full Text]
  4. Burkle FM. Lesson learnt and future expectations of complex emergencies. BMJ. 1999;319 :422 –426[Free Full Text]
PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2004 by the American Academy of Pediatrics




This Article
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