Wild Goose Chase

They say the Army is a very small world, but I didn't really believe it until I ran into two friends on a base 7500 miles from home!

The first, Cindy, is actually the sister of a medical school friend of mine, and after a few years in medical school, she became a good friend of mine as well. She, too, was in medical school at USUHS a few years behind me, but decided that medicine might not be the best thing for her, so now she is the executive officer for a medical service corps company out of Jalalabad, Afghanistan. She and I ran into each other randomly at the hospital on the first day that I arrived, and I literally didn't recognize her! She is no longer bespectacled, and her hair is much shorter than I remember a few years ago. She will be returning to her post in J-bad in a few days.

The other friend is Elisa, a West Point graduate who attended medical school with me. She got married to another Army officer at West Point in 2004, and James, my mom, and I took a special trip to New York to attend the wedding. James was even in the saber arch after the ceremony! She also pursued a residency in pediatrics, and moved to Tacoma, Washington, upon completion of medical school. She had a son about the same time as I did, and deployed to Bagram as a flight surgeon when her son was less than a year old (so she understands just how difficult separation from a small child can be). She has been here for about 3 months and will "redeploy" (i.e. return to the states) in December. Although I knew she was in Afghanistan, I had no idea that she was stationed at Bagram until I ran into her walking down the base's main drag on the day I arrived!

Needless to say, I am super excited about running into these two long-lost friends, and especially thrilled that one of them (Elisa) will be just down the street for the duration of my deployment. We had decided to meet for dinner before Cindy returns to Jalalabad in a few days, and although we knew that Elisa would be on call tonight, we still figured that dinner would work out. Cindy and I met at the PX (a little late, but we got there!), and waited for Elisa for a few minutes. Figuring that she might be at her unit, we dropped by her troop medical clinic (TMC) and learned that she was at the hospital ER with one of her soldiers. We decided to try to find her there, and learned from one of the nurses that she had "just" walked out of the ER as we arrived! By this time, Cindy and I realized that we were on a wild goose chase, and elected to leave a message at Elisa's TMC letting her know that we were headed to Dragon DFAC for dinner. A bit dejected, we went to the DFAC and selected our meals. Then, out of nowhere, Elisa appeared! She had just left the ER and come to the DFAC for a bite to eat, but she had not received the message that we had left for her. It was pure luck that we ran into her! She didn't have long to chat (she had to get back to her unit) but we agreed to reschedule our dinner date for tomorrow, when our committments will be less taxing. :-) I can't wait!!