Madigan honors recently deployed troops

Lorin T. Smith/Madigan Healthcare System Strategic Communication Office

Deven Patel is grateful that his mom has redeployed home from Iraq – dinner is edible once again.

This isn’t the first time Deven, the 9-year-old son of Lt. Cols. Tarak Patel and Kimberly Wenner, had “daddy dinner;” Wenner deployed to Iraq several years previously. But the two officers serving in Madigan Healthcare System aren’t the typical dual-military family.

They fall under the U.S. Army Medical Command’s Professional Filler System, which individually or in small groups, deploys Madigan Soldiers to both war zones or other Army posts to augment battalion aid stations, field hospitals or other military treatment facilities. These medical Soldiers can backfill deployed units for six months or more, and don’t receive a special fanfare when they return home.

Madigan took the first step to remedy this by honoring recently redeployed Soldiers during a Warrior Recognition Ceremony last month, by the Deployed Warrior Wall in the Medical Mall.

Each of the 30 Madigan Soldiers and their families received a Freedom Team Salute packet signed by the secretary of the Army and Army chief of staff. Nearly 90 doctors, nurses, technicians and Department of the Army civilians who work at Madigan are currently deployed around the world. And, according to Madigan commander Col. Jerry Penner III, they will get a “hug fest” ceremony, as well.

“I can already imagine again that lonely feeling of you guys returning, sometimes within the cloak of darkness, and probably without a lot of pomp and circumstance coming back from SeaTac (International Airport),” Penner said during the event. “It’s not really fair, and I think you should deserve similar treatment as the warriors who come back to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.”

Madigan, as a hospital, will never unfurl its colors in combat, but Madigan Soldiers are expected to fight under other units’ colors, Penner said. Wenner knows this only too well, as she left her scalpel and stethoscope in the Dermatology clinic and filled the role as a brigade surgeon for the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, in Kirkuk, Iraq.

She spent more time teaching Iraqis how to provide quality medical care than treating patients during her six-month deployment last year.

“It was weird being in a line unit instead of a medical unit; it’s a whole different world,” Wenner said.

Celebrating Wenner’s return home at the ceremony was Patel, Deven and her two other children, Aiden, 7, and Talia, 4.

“I know the kids made a lot of sacrifices when I was gone and I think it’s important for them to be brought in and shown what mommy went through,” Wenner said.

Even though deploying is hard on the family, both Wenner and Patel owe the military everything. “We wouldn’t have a family without the Army because we met at officer basic course,” Patel said.

They both enjoyed the ceremony, and if they are asked to deploy under PROFIS again, they hope there will be another observance like this one to celebrate a happy homecoming – and for Deven, good food.

Honored Warriors at a glance

Col. Glenn McDermott Task Force 239 Iraq July 2009

Maj. Amy Travino 115th CSH Iraq July 2009

1st Lt. Monina Ancheta 115th CSH Iraq August 2009

Capt. Patricia Hodson 115th CSH Iraq August 2009

Capt. Tina Ortiz 10th CSH Iraq August 2009

Spc. Kevin Mahoney 115th CSH Iraq August 2009

Spc. Jeffery Crchewicz 115th CSH Iraq August 2009

Capt. Kathleen Feeley-Lynch 47th CSH Iraq August 2009

Lt. Col. Kimberly Wenner 2nd Bde., 1st Cav. Div. Iraq September 2009

Maj. Jennifer Gotkin 47th CSH Iraq September 2009

Maj. David Hart 47th CSH Iraq September 2009

Lt. Col. James Sebesta 8th FST Afghanistan September 2009

Spc. Hye Son Ford 10th CSH Iraq December 2009

Sgt. Leifitele Mamea 82nd Airborne Div. Afghanistan September 2009

Maj. Shannon Cole 8th FST Afghanistan September 2009

Col. Robert Rush Craig Joint Theater Hospital Afghanistan September 2009

Lt. Col. Savannah Agee-Magee 10th CSH Iraq November 2009

Capt. Todd McArthur 10th CSH Iraq November 2009

1st Lt. Daniel Andrews 10th CSH Iraq November 2009

Maj. Vincent Ball 10th CSH Iraq November 2009

Lt. Col. Mark Cummings 10th CSH Iraq November 2009

Maj. Angel Colon 10th CSH Iraq November 2009

1st Lt. Hillary Miller 10th CSH Iraq December 2009

Sgt. Anthony Henderson 424th Medical Co. Afghanistan January 2010

Col. Michael Eisenhauer MNCI/MNFI Iraq October 2009

Maj. Tara Spears 14th CSH Iraq January 2010

Col. Andrew Wiesen 30th MEDCOM Afghanistan November 2009