Out in the Field

Despite my best intentions, I've been neglecting the blog world. Sorry about that. I can't decide if it's that I've been too busy or that things are too routine. Let's just go with that I'm too lazy.

A few weeks ago, though, we did something out of the routine--we went out the field! Kinda. Alpha Company had their Culminating Exercise, which is when they go to a simulated village, in this case in Mali, and demonstrate that they learned something in all of their training.

In theory, anyway.

The week started with the firing range and mass casualty situations, which were to assess how well the medics could triage and determine who to treat first. Overall, they didn't do too well. One medic spent all of her time on a head casualty that should have been triaged as "expectant" (as in, expectant to die). Another went straight to the first casualty and didn't look any further. In other words, we have some work to do.

On days 2-4, they were out in the simulated village in "Mali" (really a remote corner of Ft. Stewart). I got to play a doctor with MSF (Medecines Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders), which has a very strict "we don't work with the military--any military" policy, so I played that to the best of my abilities. This is me yelling at one of the team leaders (my friend Dan) for their actions throughout the village and how we just wanted them to leave.

The other two officers in my office, MAJ Greifenstein, the environmental science officer (in red) and CPT Avriette, the veterinarian (the girl) also got to play parts, both as USAID scientists (he a soil science, she a vet... we were really imaginative). In the course of playing a soil scientist, Griff was digging holes, and instead of the teams asking him what he was doing (which they were supposed to do), they reported him for burying land mines and declared entire roads off-limits. Not quite the reaction we were going for.

In all, it was a fun week in the field (because, well, we weren't in the office), but the teams have a lot to learn about operating in Africa. Maybe I have an advantage, because I've only been on "peacetime missions" and no deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan. I don't really have a combat mindset, but all the team members have been deployed in combat situations, and that's what they revert to when they think of going overseas. As I've said in multiple conversations to multiple people, Africa is not Iraq or Afghanistan. Not only that, but civil affairs shouldn't be about combat. It's not about going into a village with weapons, ready to shoot the bad guys. It's about getting to know people and winning trust, and not assuming that there's a bad guy behind every door.

It's a work in progress, I guess.

Field trip to the power plant

I have officially started my studies for my master's in tropical medicine and hygiene (which is a master's in public health, plus extra courses in tropical medicine and international health). No, I am not doing things out of order with my education--the MTM&H is, in fact, only offered to physicians, because there's so much clinical stuff that requires a med school background.

Anyway, this is the pre-fall quarter, which is a half quarter (the year will end with another half quarter in the summer); it's only six weeks long, and it's pretty much just the basics. We have Intro to Public Health, Computer Systems in Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Selected Topics in Occupational Medicine, and Intro to Environmental Health. The fun thing about the environmental health class is that we have field trips every Tuesday and Thursday.

Yesterday was our first field trip, to Mirant power plant in Alexandria, VA. It's a coal plant (half of the nation's electricity still comes from coal; sadly, very few people have the fortune of living in the Pacific Northwest and getting hydroelectric power). Here's the basics of how electricity gets from coal to the home:

1) Coal is burned, which boils water to make steam. The steam then turns the turbines, which makes electricity.

2 and 3) The electricity is sold to Pepco (which I think is the only power distributer in the area), and transmission lines carry high-voltage electricity to load centers

4) Distribution centers lower the voltage

5) Power cables transmit lower voltage electricity to homes and businesses (and the Pentagon)

Since it is an environmental health class, we spent quite a lot of time discussing air and water pollution. One thing that I was very fascinated by is that the emissions are completely invisible--it looks like there's nothing coming from the stacks (the two active stacks are circled in black). The steam, which is the real driving force (it turns the turbines and makes power), doesn't really escape in visible quantities, either.

Here's a timeline of energy sources for our country (energy sources, not electricity sources... we use a lot of petroleum, but that's for driving, not turning on light switches). Like I said, most electricity comes from coal, which natural gas also playing a large role. Nuclear is next, renewables below that, and hydroelectric is rather low. And sadly, there's no room to increase that number (we don't have enough fast-flowing rivers like the Columbia)

And here's a picture of the power plant from the Potomac River. It's literally right on the river, and right across the street from the residential areas of Alexandria, sitting on about 23 acres (very small for a power plant)

Tomorrow we're going to Carderock, which is where the Navy makes model boats and plays with them. Or something.