Thousands of miles away from the Middle East, few members of the
UCLA community have a direct connection with the Iraq conflict.
But UCLA alumnus and die-hard Bruin athletics fan Sameer Bakhda
does.
Known around campus as the guy who attends every UCLA athletic
event he can, Bakhda joined the military to pay for medical
school.
As a lieutenant in the United States Navy Medical Corps, Bakhda
spent three months in Kuwait this year during the height of the war
in Iraq.
As a flight surgeon for a Marine helicopter squadron ““ the
Marines get their medical personnel from the Navy ““ Bakhda,
along with one other doctor and five medics, spent most of his time
looking after 700 to 1,000 Marines.
“It was kind of like wilderness medicine,” Bakhda
said.
He said they didn’t see a lot of major injuries ““
mostly dehydration and other similar ailments ““ though a
couple of mass casualties nearly came to his field hospital during
his stay in Kuwait from late February to early May.
Day-to-day life on the base was mostly uneventful, Bakhda said,
apart from the days when fighting in Iraq was heaviest.
Bakhda had to deal with several potential SCUD missile attacks
on the base, especially at the beginning and the end of the war.
After the announcement of an “alarm red,” everyone on
the base had to put their gas masks on, grab their chemical suits,
and head to the bunkers until the threat of attack had passed.
The first couple of alarms caused “organized, chaotic
panic,” Bakhda said.
Bakhda, as a member of a helicopter squadron, could have flown
into Iraq with his colleagues but passed up the opportunity until
after Baghdad fell because he felt the risk was too great.
Members of his squadron had been supporting Marines in major
battles; Bakhda said as one of only two doctors on his base, there
was no reason to put himself in the line of danger.
Toward the end of the war, Bakhda took up an offer to go into
Iraq to cover a temporary base south of Baghdad.
Flying in a helicopter only a couple hundred feet off the
ground, Bakhda could see Iraqi people waving and cheering on the
ground.
“People seemed legitimately happy to see us,” Bakhda
said.
At the base he was assigned to, so few members of his squadron
were present that Bakhda decided to continue on to Baghdad with the
crew he’d flown in with.
Bakhda spent the night in an old government complex that was
serving as headquarters for the 1st Marine division.
Since there was nothing for him to do, he was able to explore
the buildings in the complex.
He said he toured an old jail where Iraqi citizens would be sent
and never heard from again. A friend also showed him pictures of
Iraqi torture victims. All this, he said, was “pretty
sobering.”
With civil unrest still a problem in Baghdad, Bakhda could hear
gunfire coming from outside the complex throughout the night.
Bakhda said he initially had doubts about justification for the
war, but after his experience in Iraq, he changed his mind.
“I think we did the right thing,” he said.
He said he’d also heard stories from friends about how
Fedayeen soldiers ““ Hussein’s “men of
sacrifice” ““ would use Iraqi families as human shields
when they were fighting U.S. forces.
Bakhda explained that what he saw gave him a perspective people
don’t necessarily get from the media back at home in the
United States.
Of the news coverage he had access to, he said he did see some
misinformation, but for the most part, reports were accurate.
Bakhda attributed this to reporters who were embedded in
military units. These “embeds” got to see the whole
picture, he said.
Of the war on TV, Bakhda said he thought it was
“extraordinarily valuable.”
He said it was important for the public to see both U.S.
successes and failures in the war.
Bakhda is resolute in his belief that Iraq has a long way to go
before U.S. efforts will come to fruition.
He said he worries radicals could take over and the country
could return to its previous oppressive state.
“If we let it slip into anarchy, a lot of what we did will
go to waste,” Bakhda said.
Bakhda, who graduated from UCLA in 1996, joined the Navy after
his first year of medical school at the University of Southern
California. He said the program was a fantastic deal ““ he
would get to serve his country and have his schooling paid for. In
return for paying for three years of medical school, Bakhda owed
the Navy three years of service.
Back at UCLA, some of Bakhda’s friends had nothing but praise
for his decision to join the military.
Bakhda’s favorite professor at UCLA, Steve Strand of the
biology department, said he was completely surprised Bakhda chose
to enlist since most people who go into medicine don’t even
consider it.
“He’s a really caring person; if we had more people
in the military like him, it might be a different world,”
Strand said.
Berky Nelson, director of student programming, knows Bakhda as a
loyal UCLA fan and a dedicated person in general.
“If he’s committed to something, you get 110
percent,” Nelson said.
Currently on leave in Southern California, Bakhda will be
heading to Okinawa in July.