Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Chico (CA) Enterprise-Record
July 4, 2008 By Chris Gullick, Staff Writer
Forty years ago someone who enlisted in the U.S. Navy would expect to be sent to Vietnam. But Chico native Seaman David Lay didn't expect to be sent there this year.
"I honestly thought I'd be going to Iraq," Lay admitted, when he talked to the Enterprise-Record Monday afternoon from the USNS Mercy.
Lay is a medical corpsman on the ship, essentially a floating surgical hospital, that had just left the port of Nha Trang, Vietnam.
The visit represented the first time a foreign military vessel has been allowed in Nha Trang Bay and the first time a U.S. military humanitarian mission has been permitted to perform surgeries there, according to a press release from the Office of Navy Community Outreach.
When he and his mates went ashore, Lay said they were the first Americans given liberty in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Lay enlisted a few months after he graduated from Chico High School in 2006, wanting to be trained as a medic because he thought it would be helpful in his ultimate ambition to become a search-and-rescue firefighter. The Navy would help him work toward a degree and also build a fund he can use toward his education after finishing his five-year enlistment.
After spending several months in Washington state in training, he was assigned to the Mercy.
The ship, he explained, includes both military and civilian personnel from many countries, such as Australia, Japan, Canada and the Philippines. Its peacetime mission is to bring medical and dental assistance to areas where such care is in demand and build trust between governments and medical professional communities.
The ship's first stop on this trip, after taking on supplies and personnel in Hawaii and Guam, was a 14-day visit to the Philippines, where about 200 surgeries were performed and about 5,000 people seen in clinic.
Going ashore there, Lay described the "very sad" scene of children playing in a filthy river that was used as the community's water supply and for its garbage and sewer disposal, too.
Conditions in Nha Trang were not as bad, he said, because the country provides some medical care for its people. The Mercy was able to bring a higher level of knowledge and expertise, though, with its 1,000-bed hospital, 20-bed intensive care unit and 12 surgery rooms.
One focus of the mission is to provide cleft palate repair for children.
"With parents, it's one of the best things in the world," he said, describing the obvious joy of parents who see their child after surgery, even when the swelling is at its worst.
"That's why we're here," he asserted.
"A lot of people are thinking we're taking care of the military and that isn't at all true," he said. He elaborated that the medical mission worked to build trust, pulling professional partners together from a lot of countries to deliver medical assistance.
Lay, who assists with pre-screening patients for surgeries and helps in the recovery room after surgery, said the ship serves people of all ages. The youngest patient he's seen, he said, was only 2 months old. At the other end of the spectrum was a 93-year-old who received cataract surgery.
In Vietnam, he continued, the surgical teams worked on a lot of burn victims, operating on scars that kept people from walking or functioning in other ways.
Because of the short port calls, only certain operations can be done, he explained, because the medical crew won't be available for care after surgery. Consequently, pre-screening is critical, to assess patients for other conditions that would make surgery dangerous for them.
During the nine days in Vietnam, Lay said he found the people friendly and welcoming, although he admitted to getting stared at when he went ashore.
Although the Mercy's mission is non-military, serving on the ship is in all other ways typical military service, from morning reveille at 6 a.m. to lights out at 10 p.m.
"Your boots are always shiny; your uniform's always clean," Lay quipped.
July 4, 2008 By Chris Gullick, Staff Writer
Forty years ago someone who enlisted in the U.S. Navy would expect to be sent to Vietnam. But Chico native Seaman David Lay didn't expect to be sent there this year.
"I honestly thought I'd be going to Iraq," Lay admitted, when he talked to the Enterprise-Record Monday afternoon from the USNS Mercy.
Lay is a medical corpsman on the ship, essentially a floating surgical hospital, that had just left the port of Nha Trang, Vietnam.
The visit represented the first time a foreign military vessel has been allowed in Nha Trang Bay and the first time a U.S. military humanitarian mission has been permitted to perform surgeries there, according to a press release from the Office of Navy Community Outreach.
When he and his mates went ashore, Lay said they were the first Americans given liberty in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Lay enlisted a few months after he graduated from Chico High School in 2006, wanting to be trained as a medic because he thought it would be helpful in his ultimate ambition to become a search-and-rescue firefighter. The Navy would help him work toward a degree and also build a fund he can use toward his education after finishing his five-year enlistment.
After spending several months in Washington state in training, he was assigned to the Mercy.
The ship, he explained, includes both military and civilian personnel from many countries, such as Australia, Japan, Canada and the Philippines. Its peacetime mission is to bring medical and dental assistance to areas where such care is in demand and build trust between governments and medical professional communities.
The ship's first stop on this trip, after taking on supplies and personnel in Hawaii and Guam, was a 14-day visit to the Philippines, where about 200 surgeries were performed and about 5,000 people seen in clinic.
Going ashore there, Lay described the "very sad" scene of children playing in a filthy river that was used as the community's water supply and for its garbage and sewer disposal, too.
Conditions in Nha Trang were not as bad, he said, because the country provides some medical care for its people. The Mercy was able to bring a higher level of knowledge and expertise, though, with its 1,000-bed hospital, 20-bed intensive care unit and 12 surgery rooms.
One focus of the mission is to provide cleft palate repair for children.
"With parents, it's one of the best things in the world," he said, describing the obvious joy of parents who see their child after surgery, even when the swelling is at its worst.
"That's why we're here," he asserted.
"A lot of people are thinking we're taking care of the military and that isn't at all true," he said. He elaborated that the medical mission worked to build trust, pulling professional partners together from a lot of countries to deliver medical assistance.
Lay, who assists with pre-screening patients for surgeries and helps in the recovery room after surgery, said the ship serves people of all ages. The youngest patient he's seen, he said, was only 2 months old. At the other end of the spectrum was a 93-year-old who received cataract surgery.
In Vietnam, he continued, the surgical teams worked on a lot of burn victims, operating on scars that kept people from walking or functioning in other ways.
Because of the short port calls, only certain operations can be done, he explained, because the medical crew won't be available for care after surgery. Consequently, pre-screening is critical, to assess patients for other conditions that would make surgery dangerous for them.
During the nine days in Vietnam, Lay said he found the people friendly and welcoming, although he admitted to getting stared at when he went ashore.
Although the Mercy's mission is non-military, serving on the ship is in all other ways typical military service, from morning reveille at 6 a.m. to lights out at 10 p.m.
"Your boots are always shiny; your uniform's always clean," Lay quipped.