The brightly lit, inviting atrium of the University of Alabama Hospital is a far cry from the two room, concrete-walled farmhouse in the Middle East where the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Surgical Team, based out of the UAB, deployed in 2016. During their four-month tour at that casualty collection point, the team performed the deeds that brought their families, scores of UAB well-wishers, and senior officers from the Air Force Special Operations Command, to the atrium for a medal ceremony on Feb. 13, 2018.