TARIN KOWT

As I mentioned last week, our oldest daughter is a Healthcare Administrator. In short, Healthcare Administrators are the ones who operate hospitals and large clinics. That is what our daughter does in the Navy. She thoroughly enjoys her job and the professionals she works with. She enjoys her work so much that she has repeatedly said that joining the Navy is one of the best decisions she’s ever made. There is one thing though that she has wished would happen: she wants to take a turn at being deployed to serve in the theatre of global operations.

Some may wonder, why. Well, it seems that it is only natural that if someone is patriotic enough to join the military that she is patriotic enough to want to serve where there is the greatest need. It’s in the character of our daughter to want to take her turn at serving the greatest need. There’s another aspect at play too. If you remember, our daughter’s first master’s degree is in history. I suspect she has a desire to experience and interact with some of the different world cultures. It’s a great combination that she can interact with the cultures while serving their healthcare needs and those of our military personnel. Therefore, she has consistently checked with her career detailer to see if any deployments had opened up. Deployments aren’t as easy to get as one might think in certain fields. Especially with the budget cutbacks, deployments have been fewer and longer.

Well, an opening occurred in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Our daughter jumped at the opportunity. However, although she has had some of the specialized administrative training needed, she didn’t have the year of experience needed for the assignment. She was disappointed but not deterred. She recently got word that there was a different opening in Tarin Kowt (Tarinkot), Afghanistan. Her name was submitted and she got the assignment.

She will leave at the end of January to go to Ft. Dix in New Jersey for Afghan training. She’ll be there for about five weeks before heading to Afghanistan in March. She’ll be assigned to the hospital in Tarin Kowt doing much the same as what she does in South Carolina. She’ll be in Afghanistan for about seven months. As a hospital administrator in Tarin Kowt, she will be out of harm’s way. However, Afghanistan is still an untamed frontier. We are very proud of her and keep her in our prayers. I know she’ll do a great job.