Through Airmen's Eyes: Medic, FET Airman recalls horrors, triumphs in Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Kevin Wallace
  • 366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho (AFNS) --  (This feature is part of the "Through Airmen's Eyes" series on AF.mil. These stories focus on a single Airman, highlighting their Air Force story.)

A deafening explosion ripped through the morning air at a remote forward operating base in Zabul province, Afghanistan, on April 6.

For a young medic, going about her daily duties of providing routine care in a tent nearby, life seemingly changed instantly when a suicide carbomb detonated outside the base's entry point.

The blast killed three American Soldiers, a U.S. Diplomat and Afghan civilians.

Nearly three months later, still with a shaking voice, Senior Airman Karley Karlson, an aerospace medical services technician with the 366th Surgical Operations Squadron, recalled the terror she experienced during the attack.

"My (physician's assistant) was out on a mission and I was at our small clinic with another technician, when all of a sudden we heard a horrific explosion that sounded like it was right outside," said 22-year-old Karlson, who was deployed as a female engagement team member at the Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team. "As if in a state of abnormal reality, I remember suddenly being in my room donning body armor, locking and loading my rifle and heading out to engage whoever was attacking."

While at remote FOBs and outposts every service member is considered a rifleman and sometimes situations may warrant all weapons on ready, that wasn't the case, Karlson said. Instead, her medical expertise was needed in the clinic.

"I remember waiting for the first casualty to come in and wondering how bad it was out there," Karlson said. "Then it happened, the first Soldier who was brought through the door was not only American, but a good friend of mine. It hurt to see him mutilated, but I knew I had a job to do."

The incoming casualties didn't stop with just the one Soldier.

"One after another, dead or wounded friends of mine kept coming in as we tried to do everything and anything we could to save them," she said.

Karlson said she knew serving in the armed forces was a particularly dangerous job. Despite challenges, she said she reveled in each chance to engage and help the locals outside the wire, as part of the FET mission.

"It's hard being over there and seeing good people trying tirelessly to make a life for themselves while others continue to terrorize and brutalize them," said Karlson, whose FET duties often exposed her to women and sometimes girls, who fell victim to oppressors and abusers.

FETs are comprised of female service members from various service branches and units, who all bring a variety of skill sets to the team. Karlson most frequently worked with an Army civil affairs officer.

Karlson gathered information, communicated with and assisted women with Afghan female-related issues and used her primary skillset as a medic in the FOB clinic.

These duties instilled confidence that she could make a difference in the war-torn land, Karlson said.

In one extreme case, Karlson said she remembers a woman who was raped and later forced to marry her attacker so her family could save face.

In most Afghan households only men who  can see a woman's face or speak to her are her close male relatives, which puts women at a serious disadvantage to male counterparts when it comes to improving impoverished areas and enhancing commerce and education.

"Zabul is a very traditional area, and women have very little rights there," Karlson said. "To help bolster them in society, we tried establishing female radio broadcasts, launched a gardening project, hosted female career days and actively sought other avenues to help women establish themselves in society."

According to Karlson, Afghans want a better tomorrow and want to help; they just need their voice to be heard.

"Women would come from far away to meet with us; it was humbling and I'll forever be grateful that not only have I possibly impacted them in some small way (but) they've changed me monumentally," said Karlson, who admits that being home has been hard because in comparison to the horrific problems Afghan women face, conflicts at home seem comparatively small.

With a glisten in her eye, Karlson said her experience in Afghanistan, though extremely troubling in some ways, was the most fruitful experience she's ever had, and will forever be thankful for being given the chance to help.

Still, she said, the horrors of war are never far from mind.

Karlson keeps in regular touch with her security detail, a team of U.S. Army scouts from the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., who are scheduled to return to Georgia in July 2013.

"Those guys are like family; there's really no way to quantify the emotions and bonds that develop at war and in the face of tragedy," Karlson said. "What I do know is this: we lost some great men, great Americans (and) real-life heroes over there. But they didn't die in vain. What we did there meant something and the world will see that someday."