“every dAy We GoT A PlAne WiTh Wounded soldiers, A loT of inJuries. MosT hAd Been on The BATTlefield ABouT 12 hours eArlier...” “The plan was just to do my time, get “I still think about it,” she recalled. “I Middle East or Asia. Today, in a welcome the kids through school and go from there,” still occasionally have nightmares, but respite, the medical cases that her unit she said. “But I wound up liking it, and I not like I used to.” faces are more likely to be colds and stayed. It sort of did surprise me, because Attacks were constant, but her com- sprained ankles, she said. And the digs I’m kind of a girly girl.” manders have cited several instances are better, too. At her new assignment, After several years stationed at Fort of bravery, including once when she left she has traded a hooch for a house. Knox, she eventually transferred to the a protective bunker to aid a pregnant “I can look out my kitchen window and Air Force. In 2008, her unit was called up woman who had lost both legs, and a child see the ocean,” she said. “Not too shabby.” to go to Afghanistan. Although she hadn’t who had lost one leg. Both were saved as a She said she has a fond place in her anticipated going to war when she signed result. Because of her and others’ efforts, heart for Bellarmine, where her career up, she didn’t hesitate: “It was my turn to the hospital had a 98 percent survival rate, began. She recently included university go,” she said. according to the military. materials during a college fair on the In Afghanistan, she served as chief “No matter how frightened I was, I knew Azores. She’s a member of the Bellarmine nurse of the 48th Combat Support Hospital the Lord would take care of me,” she said. University Alumni Association, and in at the forward operating base “Salerno,” “When they said I needed to go, even amid 2010, she was named a “distinguished a gravel and razor-wire camp located in a all the gunfire, I did it without hesitating.” graduate,” an honor received by less than barren valley near the mountains of Paki- After she left Afghanistan, she was put 1 percent of Bellarmine grads. She comes stan. Her job was leading 25 technicians in charge of Germany’s Landstuhl hos- back to Louisville once a year to visit her and 12 nurses in the operating room, and it pital, overseeing 245 people and running three children and three grandchildren. was a busy one. Helicopters came in day and the operating room, intensive care unit Lt. Col. Harryman, who also has her night, often prompting her to rush from and recovery room, where she saw some master’s in health care administration her tent, or “hooch,” into the operating “really sad things.” from Touro University, said she is consid- room. Many of the wounded had been hit by “I went from the war zone to another ering retirement at some point soon. She’ll roadside bombs or had extremities injured sort of war zone. It was constant. Every day likely come back to Louisville and said during firefights. There were also Afghan we got a plane with wounded soldiers, a lot she might be interested in teaching part- police and civilians caught in combat. And of injuries. Most had been on the battlefield time for Bellarmine. It’s a school she loves, there were plenty of amputations. about 12 hours earlier,” she said. but also one where her daughter earned a She worked on a total of 325 trauma Last summer, Lt. Col. Harryman was master’s degree in education. cases between April and November 2008, selected to become commander and chief That will make her role in Commence- which included the period that helped land nurse of the 65th Medical Operations ment, and her honorary degree, all the her the Bronze Star. All that trauma also Squadron in the Azores Islands, located more special, she said. took a toll on her. She said the images of in the Atlantic Ocean. Known as the Air “I think so highly of the school,” she torn legs, faces so injured people weren’t Force’s second-largest “gas station” out- said. “When I graduated, I never would recognizable and amputated arms and legs side of Guam, it’s a busy stopover point have imagined I’d be back getting an in the hospital are still “very haunting.” for planes flying between the U.S. and the honorary degree.” spring 2013 43
Bellarmine Magazine_Spring2013
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