Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/92498
dr. richard ehrlichman Dr. Ehrlichman (right) at Afghanistan's National Medical Military Center, following his surgery on an Afghan soldier (left) wounded by the Taliban. and millions of people in the habit of burning everything, you wake up in the morning and the air gets on your teeth. It's filthy. The most common conditions we treated in the battal- ion aid station were respiratory related." With the worst winter in 18 years routinely delivering two-foot snowfalls, no day was typical. "Once a week we would go out on patrol," Ehrlichman continues. "Everywhere we went, we went in convoys of armored Land Cruisers with full battle gear on. We had what was called the QRF (Quick Reaction Force), so if anything happened in Kabul, we rolled out. " How did the native population view these convoys? "The people generally fear out- siders," Ehrlichman observes. "They were always happy to receive clothes and food from us, and were happy that we patrolled their neighborhoods, but, in general, I don't think they liked us very much. " Three days a week, the Wellesleyite worked in the battalion aid station, where nearly 2,000 local citizens sought medical help – many for treatment of burns, acquired through cooking with kerosene. Disturbingly, other burns were the result of a local form of punishment: immersing recalcitrant children in hot water. "Afterwards, they'd drop them off at our front gate, figuring we'd take care of them, " Ehrlichman says, frowning. 60 WellesleyWeston Magazine | winter 2012/2013