Paramedic deployed in Iraq receives local recognition
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Story and Photo by Spc. Gretel Sharpee
MOSUL, Iraq- Soldiers at Forward Operating Base Freedom have an award winning Paramedic on staff at their Aid Station. The Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of the Aid Station, Staff Sgt. Kevin Robischeau, was awarded the title of Massachusetts Paramedic of the Year on Oct. 28 by peer nomination and committee selection.
Robischeau, a Massachusetts National Guardsman, is a full-time paramedic in the state of Massachusetts for Fallon Ambulance Service. However this year, the one he has spent in Iraq, he won the title of Paramedic of the Year.
“I was actually overwhelmed. I never thought I would be nominated let alone win,” said Robischeau of Company A, 118th Area Support Medical Battalion, from Concord, Mass.
Since May of 2004, Robischeau has been in charge of the Aid station on FOB Freedom, the Multinational Brigade-Northwest headquarters, located on the banks of the Tigris River in northwest Mosul. Often the medics at this aid station will treat local Iraqi security forces as well as Multinational Forces, increasing their number of patients and keeping the staff always on the go.
“I was known as a trauma junkie back home… the black cloud seems to follow me where ever I go, and here is no exception,” said Robischeau, who, when not deployed, lives with his wife, Laura, and two children, Molly, 8, and Kevin Jr., 4, in Londonderry, N.H.
Robischeau has been a paramedic for 10 years but has been in the field, starting out as a first responder, for 16 years. A paramedic is the top line of ambulatory care a patient can receive before hospital treatment.
“I love my job, I really do,” said Robischeau, and anyone who has been to the Aid station at Camp Freedom will agree with him.
“I have only been here for about a month,” said Spc. Shonda Esobar, a medic with the 118th. “But, you can tell he is strong in his skills the way he makes any situation flow smoothly, from daily sick call operations to a mass casualty situation.”
Staff Sgt. Kevin Robischeau of Company A, 118th Area Support Medical Battalion, from Concord, Mass., demonstrates how to establish an airway on a casualty.
(U.S. Army photo by Spc. Gretel Sharpee)
Staff Sgt. Kevin Robischeau of Company A, 118th Area Support Medical Battalion, from Concord, Mass., stands outside of the Camp Freedom Aid Station located in Mosul, Iraq.
(U.S. Army photo by Spc. Gretel Sharpee)
