Chet Cathcart:  

rough alot of hair raising experiences, and some people that i cannot mention due to high confedentiality conditions, you will never forget. i worked as shift leader, trained new technicians that came in after me, restrained patients, actively gave feedback in group therapy sessions, processed groups and practiced parapsychology. i served as a groud troop, as it were, for the support of the officers who were nurses and doctors that were assingned to the unit in support of operations, being the eyes and ears or taking the first punch, what can i say, i was an enlisted man (no offense to those who are reading this that are officers) i worked for a living. in august of 1990 the iragi military invaded the country of kuwait. american and allied troops were deployed to the kindom of saudi arabia and different parts of the world to be activated once the time was set for war. we knew that we were going to war, with negotiations breaking down and george bush sr. as well as the united nations were getting nowhere with sadaam hussein. when the liberation of kuwait was underway, i was assigned to work, covering for the medics in the same hospital that i was assigned to, wiford hall medical center, on a cancer unit working a 60 hour week. it was crash course in medicine for me, as i was used to working with the mind and how the patients on a mental health unit, were physically stable. i was proud to have served, but really wanted to go to the gulf and fight. i wasn't, but i feel proud and very gratified knowing that i served my country the best that i could in the most effective way they knew where to put me, when america was in crises. i was assigned to auxilary 9th aero medical staging facility and had some training in air evacuation of patients who suffered from injury or possible death from combat related injuries. i learned how to triage patients, built my stamina with people that served as patients (meaning, there was nothing wrong with them, it was just an excersice in litter carrying and triage). worked on the cancer unit and still got called in for emergencies (restraining patients) down on the psyche ward. i had other experiences in combat psychiatry (treating shell shock, aka "combat reaction") and field combat medicine, particularly at that time with biochemical agents. once kuwait was liberated and things were back to normal, i was sent back to the psyche unit where i was assigned 4A (alpha). i had training in outpatient mental health, psyche triage, social work, drug and alchohol rehabilitation and mental hygiene for stressed out basic trainees who were having difficulty with adapting to military lifestyle. i was finally discharged in september of 1991. e-1 to e-4, never made nco status.