Today I decided to visit the hospital and see some of the patients with our battalion chaplain.

This is Jane. Jane suffered a severe head injury when she was used as a human shield by Taliban forces in Afghanistan. She has been being treated here for some time. This is Nazi. She choked on a small battery which severely burned her trachea. She has been being treated for several weeks here and will be traveling to the US with her father to recieve additional surgery and treatment. She is a sweet little two year old girl. She climbed into my

arms as soon as I walked in and gave me a hug and patted my back. She attempts to talk but only produces ugly sounds due to the tacheostomy. Hopefully, the treatment she will recieve in the US will restore her abillity to talk. The man in the photo is my chaplain who having no kids of his own is being very patient with this Afghan child who decided she wanted to stick her hand in his mouth.