General Delivers Message From Hero's Mother to Marines in Afghanistan

By Staff Sgt. Luis P. Valdespino Jr., USMC
Special to American Forces Press Service

Dec. 27, 2007 - The assistant commandant of the Marine Corps made a quick stop at Camp Eggers yesterday and passed a message from a modern-day Marine Corps hero's family to Marines serving in and around Afghanistan's capital city. Marine Gen. Robert Magnus was on the move throughout the country, but made it a point to praise leathernecks here and to pass on a message from Debra Dunham, the mother of Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroism in Iraq.

"Deb Dunham asked me to bring a simple three-part message," Magnus said.

"First, 'Thank you.'" the second-ranking Marine said. "Now this is a 'Gold Star Mother' saying thank you, so she knows exactly what she's thanking you for." Mothers of American military men and women killed in combat have been referred to as Gold Star Mothers since the early 1900s.

"Second, keep doing what you're doing. Keep doing your mission," Magnus said. "She knows that your mission is fundamentally important.

"I want your family to someday feel as comfortable as they felt on Sept. 10, 2001," he added.

"The third part of the message is, 'Please take care of each other,'" the general said. "That's exactly what Corporal Dunham was doing when he was on his mission."

The general briefly spoke about Dunham's heroic act in saving the lives of his fellow Marines in Iraq when he covered a grenade, which ultimately cost him his life.

Magnus told the Marines that he recognized the difficulty in being away from family during the holidays, but told them that it is good to be with their Marine Corps family as an alternative.

"This is a great time to be a warrior and a Marine," he said. "You are God's gift to your family. ... The Marine Corps is God's gift to the United States ... and to the Afghan people and the Iraqi people."

He also reminded the Marines that it is important for them to consider serving an additional combat tour, or staying in the Marine Corps longer, as well as to encourage young Marines to do the same.

"Your Marine Corps is at war. Your buddies are at war," Magnus said. "You know why you're here now. You're here to help these people win back their neighborhoods and so we don't have another 9/11, and you know that.

"This mission is not over by a long shot, and you know that," the general added.

(Marine Staff Sgt. Luis P. Valdespino Jr. serves with Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan Public Affairs.)

Enhanced Health Information Sharing Supports Care of Wounded Warriors

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced the organization-wide release of enhancements that allow DoD to share electronic health information with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange (BHIE) and the Clinical Data Repository/Health Data Repository (CHDR) interfaces.

“These enhancements demonstrate the unprecedented level of interoperabilty that DoD and VA have been able to achieve with our electronic health record systems, and they contribute significantly to patient safety and continuity of care," said Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs.

With the new enhancements in place, each agency is now able to view the other agency's clinical encounters, medical procedures, and lists of medical problems on shared patients using BHIE. This adds to the pharmacy, allergy, microbiology, and chemistry/hematology data, as well as radiology reports that were made available earlier this year. Additionally, DoD providers are also able to view combat zone data (including inpatient data) from the Theater Medical Data Store.

The CHDR software actively synchronizes data between DoD and VA repositories for patients who receive health services from both agencies. That synchronization significantly increases patient safety by enabling drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks with data from DoD, VA, and retail pharmacies. CHDR has been operating on a limited basis since late 2007, but new configuration enhancements have enabled all sites to view data on shared patients.

Providers in both agencies have more information available to support patient care decisions, and the continuity of care is greatly enhanced for the nation's wounded warriors, from the combat zone to medical facilities here at home.