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thedrifter
08-06-08, 07:12 AM
Dad follows son to Iraq
54-year-old orthopedic surgeon in medical corps
August 6, 2008

By RYAN PAGELOW rpagelow@scn1.com

After watching his son graduate from Marine boot camp two years ago, Dr. Thomas Baier, an orthopedic surgeon from Libertyville, got an idea. With no more young kids in the house, and a growing urge to help the nation at war, 54-year-old Baier decided to do something bold. He walked into an Army recruiter's office in Libertyville and asked to enlist.

He's now a major in the medical corps branch of the Army Reserve serving a 90-day tour of duty as an orthopedic surgeon attached to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Mosul, Iraq. He stabilizes injured American soldiers before they're transported to a military hospital in Germany. He also treats Iraqi soldiers, policemen and contractors.

He sleeps in a small military hut on Scalpel Lane with a handful of other doctors inside a protected base. For his commute, he walks about 50 feet to the hospital, past a bunker.

Unlike at his private practice with Greenleaf Orthopaedic Associates in Gurnee and Libertyville, Baier wears fatigues and carries a 9mm gun with him to work in Iraq.

"I don't go to the bathroom without my pistol, and that's the truth," he said by telephone from Mosul. "There is a bunker right outside my door, five or 10 steps. If the alarm goes off, I have to jump."

Baier has seen some of the damage inflicted on both American and Iraqi soldiers outside the base's concrete walls. He sees horrendous leg wounds from improvised explosive devices that open up half the leg.

"I took care of a couple Iraqi soldiers. They're really great people. The first thing they asked me after coming out of anesthesia was do they still have their leg. The second thing they said was thank you. Most of these people are appreciative of what we're doing. They know we're trying to help them out," Baier said.

"The big problem out here is there is really a civil war going on between the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. They're battling each other. Then you throw the insurgents in. That makes the battle so much worse," he said.

Baier is the only American orthopedic surgeon on duty in northern Iraq, he said. Patients are flown in by helicopter or occasionally driven in by ambulance. There are also two general surgeons and some anesthesiologists.

"When someone is injured, everyone just snaps to it," he said. "I don't see any complaining about staying up late."

His operating room on the military base is a lot more basic than he's used to in Lake County.

"For one thing, the infection rate is a lot higher here. Things are really dusty. It's hard to keep the OR really sterile," Baier said from Mosul. "We don't have all the modern equipment."

After enlisting in the reserves, Baier attended a four-week training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, with other medical personnel in January. The Army gave him credit for his 23-year career as an orthopedic surgeon and gave him the rank of major. Taking a sabbatical from his private practice for three months while he serves in Iraq means a huge pay cut.

"I probably make a quarter of what I make in private practice," he said.

But he's in it for other reasons.

"Probably the deciding factor was I met some troops that were about to be deployed. Just talking to them and seeing their dedication, it was enough to get me to say I'm going to do this," Baier said.

His 22-year-old son, Michael, is a corporal with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, stationed in Twentynine Palms, Calif. Later this month, Michael will be deployed to Iraq for the second time. In 2007 he was stationed in Ramadi, manning a .50-caliber gun on a Humvee. It's unlikely the two will be able to meet each other over there.

"I'm very proud of him," Michael said. "I think what he's doing, and what he gave up to do what he's doing, is very honorable."

While they're in Iraq, Baier's wife Nancy is collecting donated food and medical items to ship to troops in Iraq through Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois which has boxes at the Greenleaf Orthopaedic Associates offices in Gurnee and Libertyville.

"I do worry about them. But I know they both want to be doing what they're doing," she said. "I pretty much have nerves of steel by now."

Ellie