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In adapted buses from the 1960s, injured soldiers - sometimes as many as 30 or 40 - are after "wheels down" at a nearby US airbase. They were airlifted out of Afghanistan overnight - in some cases, just hours after they were injured. The first person to meet them is always one of the hospital Chaplains. After initial stabilisation on the ground in Afghanistan, Landstuhl will provide the next critical stage of their treatment. "In the case of battle injured we'll get some very, very recent casualties who've been stabilised enough to move the five or six-hour flight down range...

When I heard Barack Obama had planned a trip to visit Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany, I knew from personal experience how much of a lift it would have given the hundreds of soldiers recovering from war wounds there. As fate would have it, I was sent to Landstuhl two years ago, after my lower legs were shattered by shrapnel from a mortar round in Iraq. After undergoing surgery, I spent nearly a month as a bedridden patient in the recovery care unit, uncertain whether or not I would ever walk again. It was around July 4th and I was...

Barack Obama's claims that he was not going to use a planned visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center as a photo-op were blown out of the water tonight by a spokesman for Landstuhl who told Stars and Stripes that plans had been made for Obama's campaign press contingent to film the candidate as he entered and left the hospital.U.S. European Command spokesman Lt. Col. John Dorrian said that local and traveling press would have been brought to the entrance of Landstuhl to film Obama entering and leaving the hospital.The article also noted that it would have been permissible for Obama...

Today, Dr. Danny Jazarevic, who served as the Chief of Trauma, Critical Care and Vascular Surgery at Landstuhl, issued the following statement on Barack Obama's canceled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl: "Last week, Senator Obama skipped a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the Pentagon would not allow campaign staff or media to accompany him into the hospital. I served as director of trauma surgery at that hospital for nearly four years and saw the effect that a visit from a celebrity like Senator Obama could have on morale. During that time, I...

Go see all the posts, below, about the BO visit, because you're about to get an education into HOW these visits happen, who is involved, and why they can get crazy. And, in a small way, a de-bunking of sorts on the Landestuhl visit from the perspective of someone who set those types of visits up. Many of you may recall that in a previous deployment, I had responsibility for all visits in theater. I was responsible for setting up ALL clearances for ANY visits to the area by ANYONE below cabinet level. That meant if your visit didn't get...

At a morning press conference after a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, Barack Obama got caught up in the web of lies his campaign has spun about the cancellation of his planned visit to wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Friday.Obama stated: "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we left it off the schedule."Not true, Washington Post reported this morning: When Obama arrived in Germany on Thursday, a printed schedule said he would fly...

Only two facts matter in this little episode. First, Obama is a sitting U.S. Senator and can visit the troops any time he wants. Second, the only restriction on visiting the troops was that he could not bring reporters. Most importantly, it makes no difference what you call the trip. "Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country," retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, an Obama adviser, said in a statement. "We learned from the Pentagon [Wednesday] night that the visit...

From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski In his official capacity as a sitting US senator, Obama has every right to stay in touch with America's men and women in uniform. According to Pentagon officials, the problem was that Obama's request to visit Landstuhl included two members of his campaign staff -- retired Major General Jonathan S. Gration and Jeff Kiernan. US military officials in Germany informed the campaign the two political operatives would not be permitted on base. Pentagon officials say Gration was the campaign's point of contact at Landstuhl in arranging Obama's visit and "got torqued" when he was told he...

A U.S. military official tells NBC News they were making preparations for Sen. Barack Obama to visit wounded troops at the Landstuhl Medical Center at Ramstein, Germany on Friday, but "for some reason the visit was called off." One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, "he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers." In addition, "Obama could not bring any media. Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit."...

Obama’s behavior toward American troops in Germany was so egregious, even the New York Times this morning is picking up the story. The Times writes, “It wasn’t perfectly clear whether the Pentagon asked the Obama campaign to cancel the trip outright or the campaign decided on its own -- after quiet pressure from military officials -- that a political trip to the base was inappropriate.” “The trip” was a scheduled trip to visit American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, one of the world’s largest military hospitals. Initially, Obama claimed it would be inappropriate because he was in...

Robert Gibbs, a senior communications adviser to the Obama campaign, briefed reporters on the planne today. I just received this transcript as I am in London, having leap-frogged ahead due to requirements for live shots here. This is the full transcript about the Obama camp’s perspective on the back-and-forth with the Pentagon about the canceled visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. {Read Transcript at the Link)

Was the Pentagon's exclusion of Obama foreign policy advisor Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, USAF (Ret.) from Barack Obama's planned visit with wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany the reason for Obama's cancellation of the visit?Piecing together the information being reported in various news outlets points in that direction.Der Spiegel first reported the story in a brief note on their live thread on Obama's visit to Berlin yesterday morning (EDT). Free Republic was the first to pick up the story. From there it was picked up by Hot Air, then spread through the blogosphere and into the the...

Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been rocked over the bad publicity Obama is getting over his perceived snub of wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.ABC News reports Obama staffers staged three separate briefings in just forty-five minutes on O-Force One as they flew from Berlin to Paris today.Yesterday, the Obama campaign put out two conflicting reasons for canceling the visit. One blamed the Pentagon, the other said Obama chose not to visit over concerns the stop would be seen as political.The Pentagon has responded to reporters queries saying that Obama was welcome to visit as a senator...

NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube get the skinny on the abrupt cancellation of Barack Obama’s visit to Landstuhl and Ramstein yesterday. The campaign tried to excuse it by claiming that it wouldn’t be appropriate to visit while on a campaign-funded portion of his trip, but that wasn’t the real problem. When Obama found out he couldn’t use the visit as a photo op, he canceled: One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama’s representatives were told, “he could only bring two or three...

NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube get the skinny on the abrupt cancellation of Barack Obama’s visit to Landstuhl and Ramstein yesterday. The campaign tried to excuse it by claiming that it wouldn’t be appropriate to visit while on a campaign-funded portion of his trip, but that wasn’t the real problem. When Obama found out he couldn’t use the visit as a photo op, he canceled... In fact, those same rules applied for the CODEL trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. They serve to keep politicians from exploiting military facilities for political reasons, and to ensure that all visitors get treated...

The Pentagon said Barack Obama phoned wounded U.S. soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical center in Germany today a day after a firestorm developed over his cancellation of plans to visit the base and Ramstein Air Force Base.Pentagon spokeswoman Elizabeth Hibner told Bloomberg News that Obama was told by the military he could visit the bases as an offical but not as a candidate and without campaign staff.Obama chose to cancel the visit and instead phoned it in to the troops.

The McCain campaign is slamming Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., over a decision to cancel a visit with U.S. troops in Germany. The German magazine Der Spiegel is reporting online that Obama has “cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl U.S. military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The visits were planned for Friday.” “Barack Obama will not be coming to us,” a spokesperson for the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl told Der Spiegel. “I don't know why.” Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs told ABC News in a statement, “During his trip as part of the...

NewsBusters has learned that presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama has cancelled plans to visit two U.S. military bases while in Germany, this despite having all kinds of time to speak to gushing Berliners as well as getting in a workout at the Ritz Carlton.One of the bases, The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, "is an overseas military hospital operated by the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense...[that] serves as the nearest treatment center for wounded soldiers coming from Iraq and Afghanistan."Yet, as Ed Morrissey's Hot Air reported a few hours ago, Spiegel Online claimed at 1:42 PM local time...

The Obama campaign has issued a new statement blaming the Pentagon for Obama's controversial decision to scrap visits to U.S. troops and Rammstein Landstuhl military bases in Germany on Friday.Der Spiegel initially reported this morning that Obama had cancelled the visits without reason. Then as word spread through the political world after the story was first posted at Free Republic, Obama's campaign issued a statement saying Obama thought it would be "inappropriate" to visit the troops while on a campaign trip.After the McCain campaign issued a statement upbraiding Obama for snubbing the troops saying that it is never inappropriate to...

++ Visit to US Military Bases Cancelled ++ 1:42 p.m.: SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that Obama has cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The visits were planned for Friday. "Barack Obama will not be coming to us," a spokesperson for the US military hospital in Landstuhl announced. "I don't know why." Shortly before the same spokeswoman had announced a planned visit by Obama.

After visiting GIs in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq as part the congressional delegation prelude to his campaign swing in the Middle East and Europe, Barack Obama canceled planned visits to the U.S. military bases at Ramsteina and Landstuhl.Landstuhl is where wounded U.S. troops are taken from the battlefield to be stabalized before being flown to Walter Reed in Washington, D.C. and other military hospitals back home.Jake Tapper of ABC News reports the Obama campaign issued a statement saying the planned visits with the troops were canceled because it was deemed by the campaign to be "inapprpopriate" because Obama's stop in...

1:42 p.m.: SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that Obama has cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The visits were planned for Friday. "Barack Obama will not be coming to us," a spokesperson for the US military hospital in Landstuhl announced. "I don't know why." Shortly before the same spokeswoman had announced a planned visit by Obama.

NORFOLKAs doctors removed pieces of shrapnel from his body Friday, Staff Sgt. Jesse Queck was piecing together accounts of the attack that killed nine of his comrades in Afghanistan earlier this week.Queck, who grew up in Eastville and Cheriton on Virginia's Eastern Shore, is recovering from combat injuries at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.He is one of about a dozen injured soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.The battle Sunday involved an estimated 200 Taliban insurgents coordinating a large-scale attack on an unfinished mountain outpost near the Pakistani border.About 45 U.S. soldiers...

LANDSTUHL, Germany, Oct. 30, 2007 – Patients at a new medical transient detachment barracks that opened here earlier this month point to the facility as proof that the military is living up to its promises to ensure troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan get the best care possible. The new Warrior Transition Unit at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany offers sick or wounded troops from the combat zone being treated as outpatients a higher quality of life and easier access to care. Photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. When word broke in February of...

LANDSTUHL, Germany — Ask Romanian Army Lt. Col. Dorin Petrut how old he is and he’ll probably say, “22 years for each leg.” He does that, he says, because he can, thanks to the doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. They saved his lower left leg from amputation after he was injured in a rocket attack near Baghdad International Airport on Sept. 11. “I heard a sound like a C-17. I thought, ‘This is an airport. That’s not unusual,’” Petrut recalled. The next thing he remembered was seeing nearby cars “splattered with my flesh and blood.” The other Romanian and...

"Every day, planes land at Ramstein with severely injured US soldiers from Iraq. In the biggest American military hospital in Europe, lives are saved, limbs amputated and gunshot wounds patched up. It's the Iraq War's German front." "Dawn Garcia, a 40-year-old native of Texas, is difficult to overlook. She exudes a sense of kindness that changes every room she enters. She lives in Landstuhl with her husband and two daughters, has been in the army for 18 years and clearly loves her work. She is a remarkable person."

A CBS spokeswoman says correspondent Kimberly Dozier has undergone two surgeries since being injured in a car bombing Monday in Iraq. Doctors have removed shrapnel from her head, but they say the most series injuries are to her lower body. Dozier is being treated in Germany. The blast in Baghdad killed British cameraman Paul Douglas and freelance soundman James Brolan. Military officials say Dozier will be treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which is the U.S. military's largest overseas hospital. CBS says all three journalists were riding in an armored humvee and are believed to have been wearing protective...

RAMSTEIN, Germany — Cindy Sheehan says she will not be near Ramstein Air Base or participate in a protest march from Landstuhl to Ramstein on Saturday if she goes through with a planned trip to Europe. Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq and the woman who protested the war last summer outside President Bush’s ranch in Texas, said in an e-mail Wednesday to Stars and Stripes that “everything is up in the air at this point.” Sheehan is due to arrive in Frankfurt on Thursday. Despite uncertainty clouding Sheehan’s visit, protesters and counterprotesters still plan to gather...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2006 – Wounded servicemembers have an extra helping hand thanks to Operation First Response, a group specializing in providing them supplies and funds during their recuperation. Peggy Baker of Culpepper, Va., founder and president of the all-volunteer nonprofit, answered questions from interested troops Jan. 19 at the Washington Capitals' "Salute to the Military Night" at the MCI Center here. While thousands of servicemembers and their families enjoyed free tickets to the hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Baker took the opportunity to offer assistance. "We're kind of an extension. Where somebody will fall through the loops,...

Online Auction of the 50,000th copy of Military Salute to benefit Operation First Response The Minnesota Platoon, a group of five disabled Vietnam-era Veterans that distributes “Military Salute” at no charge to active-duty Military units, Veterans groups, family support groups, public safety organizations, church groups, school districts, and students working on patriotic projects, is now conducting an online auction of the 50,000th copy of the video to benefit Operation First Response. Operation First Response ... http://www.operationfirstresponse.org ... sends backpacks to Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and visits Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2005 – When Karen Grimord found out in August 2004 that war-wounded servicemembers were spending long days and nights at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany without any entertainment in their hospital rooms, she decided to do something about it. Since founding the Landstuhl Hospital Care Project in November 2004, Grimord and her husband, Brian, have spearheaded sending nearly $20,000 worth of items to the pastoral services at Landstuhl for war-wounded patients and their families. The items include sweats suits, tennis shoes, CD players, skull caps, socks, phone cards, house slippers, break-away pants, winter jackets, board games,...

With more soldiers leaving combat because of medical problems associated with advancing age, doctors and Army planners are adjusting to offer better treatment and to prevent unfit soldiers from seeing combat. Doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, for example, are adapting to handle more heart and hernia patients, two of the top three non-combat injuries they treat. Later this year, a doctor specializing in angioplasty will join Landstuhl’s staff so the hospital can perform the procedure regularly rather than sending patients to Walter Reed Army Medical Center or local German hospitals. And, Dr. (Col.) Randolph Modlin, chief of...

WASHINGTON — Americans responded almost immediately to early reports that wounded U.S. soldiers in Germany needed clothing, but now the facility as well as the Army hospital in Washington, D.C., are urging donors to hold off for a while. “It seems like every city had a clothes drive for our soldiers,” said Marie Shaw, public affairs officer at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (search) in Germany, which has tended to more than 18,000 servicemen and women wounded in Iraq since the beginning of operations there in March 2003. "We received tons of things over the holidays — we now have a...

I talked to Walter Reed people today--they're swamped with supplies, including phone cards, "til June," one told me.   But they're desperate at Ramstein.  Per below. _____________________________________________________________________ From: Lori Noyes Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 12:28 AM Subject: Request for Help for our wounded troops at LRMC Dear CAP Friends:  I am writing is to tell you about a project the Ramstein Cadet Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is starting. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) here in Germany got an influx of about 500 wounded troops from Iraq last week and more arrive almost daily. They arrive straight from...

Rob Biron has seen some sad sights on the floor of the trauma ward at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. He has also seen acts of bravery and kindness.

FYI - endorsed by an in-country CH-46 USMC squadron CO -----Original Message----- Take a Wounded Soldier to the Movie Program To all, Another good cause. Considering I have just sent 2 more of my Marines through Landstuhl wounded from hostile fire, I am a big fan of this. VR LtCol Roy A "Ozzie" Osborn HMM-263(REIN) "Thunder Chickens" ----- -----Original Message----- From: Inghilterra, Vincent J. COL Meeting the request and desire for persons and families to be more personally involved in caring for and supporting our wounded troops during this holiday season, the Command has endorsed in coordination with LRMC: Take...

FRANKFURT, Germany - Medical staff at a U.S. military hospital in southwest Germany are expanding bed capacity to care for scores of wounded from Iraq, including many from the assault on Fallujah, officials said Thursday. A planeload with 53 wounded from Iraq arrived Thursday morning and another with 49 more was expected to arrive Thursday evening at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center - together making an anticipated 102 for the day, spokeswoman Marie Shaw said. "We are very busy," Shaw said. "We have seen an increase of patient arrivals since the outbreak of the Fallujah conflict." On Wednesday, 64 wounded...

Sergeant Joseph Bozik, an Airborne Soldier with the 118th MP Company (Airborne) from Ft. Bragg, was recently wounded. He has lost both legs and an arm from a landmine, is not not conscious and has many medical complications. On Monday, Sergeant Bozik will be flown into Walter Reed from Landstuhl (Germany). Unfortunately, the family doesn't have enough money to maintain themselves in a hotel (let alone buy food) for an extended period. The Army paid for airfare for 2 family members and Soldiers' Angels paid for airfare for 2 two more. The Angels can cover hotel expenses for only three...

Guard chaplains minister to wounded troops LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, Germany -- Alabama Air National Guard Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Robert Hicks prays with two U.S. servicemembers here. The Baptist minister is assigned to the hospital to comfort Guard troops who have been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Bob Haskell) by Army Master Sgt. Bob HaskellNational Guard Bureau 10/26/2004 - LANDSTUHL, Germany (AFPN)  -- There was no doubt in anyone's mind, including his wife's and his father's, that Arkansas Army National Guard Spc. Ronald Baker was going to die. All that kept the man from Cabot, Ark.,...

It was an unusual pairing of VIPs, but one that had patients and staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center buzzing. Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year Toby Keith and Motor City Madman and rock legend Ted Nugent stepped off an Army Blackhawk May 30 to visit the wounded at LRMC before playing a free USO concert in Illesheim, Germany. First was lunch at the dining facility. Mr. Nugent, an avid hunter, was pleased with the menu. “Give me the biggest, greasiest, nastiest rib you can get your hands on,” said Mr. Nugent to one of the servers. After lunch,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Former American hostage Thomas Hamill, who escaped from his Iraqi captors over the weekend, has left the country en route to Germany and the United States, a senior U.S. official said Monday. Hamill 43, of Macon, Miss., pried open the doors of the house where he was being held late Sunday morning and ran a half-mile to a military convoy that was passing by near the town of Balad north of Baghdad. The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hamill would go first to a U.S. military hospital at Landstuhl, Germany for a...

INDIANAPOLIS - A Marine from Indiana whose smiling, cigar-smoking image helped symbolize the fall of Baghdad a year ago suffered severe head injuries in fighting this week in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah. AP Photo Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch, 36, of Terre Haute, marked Friday's one-year anniversary of the fall at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Surgeons removed a piece of shrapnel that lodged near his optic nerve when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into his tank Tuesday in Fallujah, his wife said Friday. "He had to have his right eye removed. He's very concerned about that," April...

LANDSTUHL, Germany - The hills of southwestern Germany, lush with fir trees and red-tiled houses, are thousands of miles from the theater of war. But for American troops wounded in Iraq, Landstuhl is a first stop on the long road to recovery. Wards at the U.S. military hospital here also offer rare and fresh details about battles in Iraq, as American troops face the most serious challenge to the U.S. occupation since the fall of Saddam Hussein one year ago. Stretched out on hospital beds, the grime of war still visible on their bodies, soldiers and Marines described their battles...

<p>Western European communities rely on business generated by the military outposts.</p> <p>WUERZBURG, Germany -- As host to 170,000 U.S. soldiers and dependents, Germany has a lot to lose under Pentagon plans to shift forces out of western Europe, and officials in areas facing a pinch are lobbying heavily for them to stay.</p>

<p>THANKSGIVING in Baghdad was a political success for President Bush, and more. Even if the turkey he hoisted was chosen strictly for its photogenic qualities, the event showed the president connecting in a human way with men and women, far from home, in a place where life is blown apart in a cruel instant. Watching those young faces reminded all Americans, Bush backers or not, that war puts the country's flesh and blood on the line, not just its national pride or presidential politics. For all that it conveyed, however, the Bush Thanksgiving extravaganza showed only one tiny slice of the daily, ugly reality of war and its aftermath for thousands of US service personnel and those who care for them.</p>

The Long Way Home Dec. 3, 2003 Since the war in Iraq began, more than 300 U.S. troops have been killed, and more than 2,100 have been wounded by hostile fire. The fact that seven times more soldiers have been wounded than killed is a tribute to how good American battlefield medicine has gotten at saving lives. But it also means young men and women who would have died of their wounds in earlier wars are coming home. As the casualties began to mount, Correspondent David Martin set out to meet some of the wounded and find out what the...

The political magazine Frontal 21 from the German State Television (leading in audiences in Germany) was authorised to film in Landstuhl and obtained these numbers. Currently there are 30 to 50 wounded soldiers arriving daily from Iraq.

I've been contacted by a group in Apple River, IL that wishes to send boxes of stuff to Landstuhl for the patients. What's on the table currently is boxes of sweaters donated by Land's End, but other stuff may follow in the future. Right now, all the organizations they've contacted that help with shipping are sending to Iraq or Afghanistan. Anybody got any ideas?

LANDSTUHL, Germany, Nov. 6 — When a squad of dark gray buses pulled up at the Army hospital here this week, bearing 21 soldiers wounded in an attack on their Chinook helicopter, none of the waiting doctors could identify with the victims quite the way the hospital's commander, Col. Rhonda L. Cornum, did. She, too, was shot down in a helicopter over Iraqi territory, nearly 12 years ago while on a rescue mission during the Persian Gulf war. She, too, saw fellow soldiers die in the fiery wreckage. She, too, suffered multiple wounds that took months — even years —...

<p>LANDSTUHL, Germany — Sgt. Christopher Nelson admitted feeling a little edgy as the CH-47 Chinook (search) lifted off toward the Baghdad airport and home leave. Then, he heard "a loud boom," closed his eyes and prayed.</p> <p>The next thing he knew, Nelson, 27, of Orange, Texas, was lying on the ground, surrounded by pieces of the U.S. helicopter.</p>