Colorado, Aug. 15, 2005
Ashok Sharma
NRI press
NRI (non- resident Indian) Mr. Chandru Butani's
son Major Raj Butani MD of the US 2nd Brigade return
from Iraq after providing medical care to U.S. and
Iraqi soldiers and civilians.
He departed his home station in Honolulu in June
2004, arriving initially in Korea to join his unit
for pre-deployment training. His unit reached Kuwait
in August 2004 for some additional training and to
receive their vehicles (which were shipped by sea),
and arrived in Ramadi, Iraq in the Al Anbar province
later in August.
My duties includes routine primary careeverything
from sports and training-related injuries to medical
illnessesas well as urgent care for combat-related
traumas and casualties. I work with a team of medics,
a physician assistant and other physicians stationed
on our Forward Operating Base.
In treating casualties, our job is to stabilize
and provide lifesaving treatment, and then rapidly
air-evacuate the patients who will need urgent surgeries
or other types of advanced evaluation and treatment
to higher-level medical facilities. Additionally,
my responsibilities include providing medical oversight,
planning and support for my battalion's combat operations
in the region and on our base.
When he isnt working, Butani contacts his wife
at least a couple times per week via e-mail and or
phone.
We manage to keep in touch pretty regularly,
Butani says. They have built up reasonably good
Morale-Welfare-Recreation internet and
phone centers on the bases here with reasonable calling
rates, but the lines can get pretty long during peak
hours, and there are time limits on phone calls when
there is a wait.
It works well when I'm calling Hawaii, since
the time zone is such that it's off-peak for most
people. Internet access is decent, although of course
the servers go down every so often and other things
happen which may temporarily affect service, such
as the underground cables relaying the signal may
be run over by a construction bulldozer, etc.
But overall, its not too bad, especially
when you think about people who served in previous
wars, having to wait weeks just to get a letter. The
instant communication via satellite phones and internet
is truly amazing when you think about it.
Butani, who completed the six-year B.A./M.D. combined
degree program with Lehigh (earning a bachelor's degree
in premedical science) and the Medical College of
Pennsylvania (now part of Drexel University) in Philadelphia.
Before his deployment to Iraq, Butani worked as an
Army gastroenterologist at Tripler Army Medical Center
in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he lives with his wife,
Mona, a dentist.
Indian
American major's Iraqi ordeal
New York, August 14, 2005
IANS
They could see the buses rolling out across the airbase
tarmac but were not sure their soldier son, Iraq returnee
Major Raj Butani of the US 2nd Brigade, was in one
of them.
But Chandru Butani's account of his son's experiences
is immediate, raw, throbbing and is perhaps the first
authentic, first-hand account by an Indian American
of life with the US army in Iraq.
Sleeping on top of an ambulance... gazing at the
night sky in a steamy, dark desert... seeing friends
blown to pieces...
Butani and his wife had heard from their son sparingly,
once in a while when he could send an e-mail or talk
over the phone, but army regulations did not allow
him to give much detail.
Butani explained why they had been 'on the racks'
all the while. Raj had been posted in Ramadi, which
forms part of the Sunni Triangle, an area with the
highest resistance to US presence.
"In the first phone call after the convoy reached
Ramadi (a three-day travel from camp Hovey, Kuwait),
Raj mentioned that there was a bit of tension, as
they were travelling on a two-way road and he sounded
quite concerned about insurgents and IEDs (improvised
explosive devices).
Butani Sr read from the first e-mail his son had
sent out of the makeshift e-mail centre inside a tent:
"There were long, long stretches of desert sand
or gravel where we would 'stage', or park our vehicles
in pitch darkness for overnight rest. I could sleep
in the litters in the back of the ambulance, but due
to the heat it was easier to get out my 'woobie' (like
a thin camouflage blanket), lay it out on the roof
and sleep on top of the vehicle.
"I would get a few hours of sleep, and then
start the next day. Lying there and looking at the
hundreds of other vehicles in the middle of the desert
night, looking up at the moon and the night sky somewhere
in the middle of Iraq. The whole thing seemed so unreal.
"I remember thinking 'Could I ever have dreamt
of this sitting at a lecture or on rotation duty at
the hospital?' Probably not, but there are many other
things in my life I probably didn't see coming, and
I don't remember regretting any of them. In the end
- hopefully - this will end up being another of those
things. I also remember thinking: hope I don't roll
over the wrong way, fall off this tall vehicle and
break my neck or bust my head. Luckily, that didn't
happen either."
Butani's father said, "One of the worst incidents
happened when his physician assistant and closest
friend, who shared room with him at the Ramadi Base,
was slain when an IED blew his vehicle to smithereens.
I remember Raj being devastated for several weeks.
Being his closest friend, he read out the eulogy,
and he completely broke down.
"All the while that Raj was in Iraq, we were
watching every possible news story, trying to guess
what really was happening out there. Raj himself could
not tell us much due to military information rules.
"As you can imagine, prayer-time increased proportionate
to our anxiety levels, and the extended family and
friends were all involved. I think it must have gotten
too much for our deities in the end," a relieved
Butani Sr said with a happy chuckle.
"In early July, we heard that the 2nd Brigade
would finally wind up and return home. As the days
inched closer, anxiety peaked. And Raj had to remain
incommunicado.
But finally, the family reached Colorado Springs
one day, and saw the plane touch down, the buses with
tinted window glasses roll out with the returnee patriots
and then in the end, bring them to a large gymnasium
for the long awaited, chaotic reunions. But then,
Raj was not there!
"Then we realised that he was being brought
in an army limousine, along with some other officers...
rank has some privileges, you see," smiled a
relieved Chandru Butani.