Mary Weir and Michael Borsich are University Hospitals’ nurses who are also U.S. Army Nurse Corps officers from the 256th Combat Support Hospital in Brooklyn, Ohio. Both were deployed to Iraq to serve with the 399th Combat Support Hospital. The 399th provides care at two 44-bed facilities. Of note, the 256th Combat Support Hospital lineage hails from the 4th General Hospital–Lakeside Unit, whose information and colors are located in the Lakeside Building at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

Michael Borsich
I arrived at Camp Speicher in Iraq at 4:00 a.m. on October 13, 2006, after 4 months of training at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, and a brief 2-week acclimation to the desert environment in Kuwait.

The actual trip to Iraq took approximately 17 hours on planes and busses.

This is my first active-duty mission in 13 years with the Army Reserves. I anticipate being here approximately 16 months. While I have always wanted to be deployed, you can’t always pick your time to go. I leave at home my wife, Sherry, and two beautiful babies, Leah (4 years) and Dominic (17 months), who I miss terribly.

I staff the Intermediate Care Ward at the 399th as an RN. Our patients are more diverse than we anticipated: US soldiers, Iraqi Army and police, Iraqi civilians, US and foreign contractors, and, occasionally, detainees. The patients I primarily care for are victims of gunshot wounds, burns, and improvised explosive devices. The work I do here as a nurse is a far cry from my research department job back at UH. The expectation here is that we care for pediatric, orthopaedic, psychiatric, and varied internal medicine patients. It is truly a catchall.


My most-gratifying moment came after caring for an Iraqi civilian for several weeks. He said to me on his rather hurried discharge, “I wish that after all this is over you and your family can come and visit me, I will slaughter for you my biggest sheep.” Our interpreter assured me that this was a very high compliment.

The most difficult for me still is the babies, the little ones. I look at their injuries and think to myself, “Why?” Then I have to re-focus and say, “What can I do to give this patient a better outcome?”

I currently work the night shift, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., for 2 days, then off one day. We can be called for a mass casualty at anytime; fortunately, there have been few. In my off time, I like to read, go to the gym, study Arabic, and of course, go to movie night!

I miss all of my co-workers at UH, except for one, Mary Weir; she managed to follow me and works in the ICU here. Most of our peer group here is from Northeast Ohio. I want to take the opportunity to say hello to all my co-workers in Cardiology Research and the Cath lab. A special hello to Laura and Jeannie, thanks for all of your support, you are the best!